Blog 69

A different culture that fascinates me is the Native American tribes like the Cherokee and Apache. They have gone through so much at the hands of the United States, and they still aren’t extremely hateful towards every American. Many other cultural groups would have continued to hate the country that treated them so wrongly, but they don’t seem too upset to be a part of it. They also are interesting in the way that they are so mysterious. As time progresses, we find more and more evidence that could suggest that Native Americans came in contact with different places all over the world before Columbus. One tribe of the Cherokee believes to be descended from ancient Jewish people that sailed across the ocean to America. There is so much strange diversity in their culture and religion that makes them interesting to learn about. Another thing to think about is why they remained hunter gatherers when Europe moved so far ahead technologically. Everyone had the same amount of time and according to some people, similar technologies sprang up in Europe, Asia, and Africa around the same time periods without being in contact with each other, so why didn’t the Native Americans develop any of these things. I think their traditions and spiritual ceremonies are the best part about them, and that’s what really makes them stand out as a culture.

Blog 68. Women Drivers

I am scared of a few things. First of all, I don’t really like sharks, I know that almost all sharks are harmless, and a huge number more people are killed by cars each year, but for some reason I still get nervous swimming in the ocean when I can’t see what is swimming around below me. I like to bring goggles with me when I go to the ocean, or I just swim in shallow water near the beach with a lot of other people around. I think it is the teeth, but I don’t know. I also don’t like being driven around by women. It scares the shit out of me. Haha just kidding, many women can drive just fine. It was a joke, relax. But seriously though, some people scare me because they are such terrible drivers. It makes me not want to drive ever again when I think about some of the people who are behind the wheel of a car. I grew up in California and got to see some of the worst drivers know to man. I once saw a lady putting on makeup, talking on the phone, and eating all at the same time while driving a car. I tried to tell my mom to steer clear of this lady, but she was too busy cleaning her glasses, yelling at my brother in the backseat, and fixing her hair to notice me. Those are just a few things that scare me, as do my first finals in 26 hours. Goodnight/morning everyone.

Blog 67

I am concerned about the growing population of the world. The earth can only maintain so many people before we run out of food and water for everyone. We already have enough trouble feeding people everywhere, and our population is getting larger and larger every day. There are over six billion people currently and unless we do something soon to either produce more food using less resources or we convince this six billion to have no more than two kids in their lifetime, we won’t be able to feed everyone that is hungry. I think China has the right idea by giving incentives for people to have fewer children. If you give positive rewards people will listen, and we can avoid the hunger crisis. India tried punishing people for having more children and that just cause people to distrust the government family planners and was not successful. We can also look at genetically altered plants to provide a temporary solution. These plants can be made to grow in harsher climates or produce higher yields of food than current plants. This wouldn’t stop the population explosion, but it would give us time to find more solutions. Maybe sometime in the future we will move into space to find more land for farming? That is an interesting thing to think about. However, at the rate we are growing there will be serious problems trying to feed the world soon and we need to find a solution that can last, not just prolong the issue.

Blog 64

The biggest mistake I ever made was probably going to a party a month after back surgery. I wasn’t even drinking or doing much partying but I had nothing better to do that night so I went. It was one of the biggest parties of the year and was in one of my friend’s old abandoned barns in the front of his property. The cops eventually showed up at the party and everyone started to run. I ended up jumping out of the loft of the barn and landing hard on the ground. I wasn’t even supposed to be doing very much moving, and there I was jumping out of 15 foot lofts. That wasn’t even the end of it; I then walked about 4 miles through the woods evading the cops to get to my friends house and sleep on his couch while he hooked up with one of my friends. I did get to watch the Reno 911 movie for the first time though so that was kind of cool. To add insult to injury, no one that got caught at the party ended up getting in any trouble. I am pretty sure that my recovery process was slowed down a lot as a result of that night, and hopefully it didn’t cause any long term or future problems for me and my back. That is one decision I definitely wish I could go back and change.

Blog 63

Well I have gone through a few best friends in my time since people change and so have my surroundings. My best friend growing up was the kid that lived next door to me. We would hang out all the time and do pretty much everything together. We would bike and roller skate and all that other shit that little kids do together. I used to make fun of him because his last name meant "Lettuce Head" in Spanish. He obviously returned the favor since it is not that hard to think of something for my name. We stayed pretty tight until I moved to California. The day before I moved I walked down the street in broad daylight and TP’d his house then walked back trying to ignore all the strange looks I was getting from people walking by. When I got to Ohio in 7^th grade, I decided to join the Middle School football team and that’s where I found my next best friend. We hung out all the time and played football a lot until he got sick of our coaches being assholes and quit the team. I stuck through it, but we were never as close after that because we didn’t have as much in common anymore. Then his family got into financial trouble and me and my family offered to let them stay in our house with us until they got back on their feet. Well, that’s 250 words. Goodnight everyone.

Blog 62

My favorite place is my home town of Brea, California. It is always warm there and the worst weather it gets is rain storms and sometimes rain can be enjoyable. I have a lot of good memories from growing up there. When I moved to Ohio I left a lot of good friends behind. Brea was kind of close to the beach so if I wanted to go, I could just hop in the car and drive a little bit. It also had a very nice mall and a pretty good downtown that was within walking distance of my house. That is one of the things that I missed the most. The city I live in now is much smaller and doesn’t even have a movie theater in it. Every time I go outside and it is bright, warm, and sunny, I am reminded of Brea. I also wish I was there a lot during the winter when it is freezing and I have to go outside to work on my farm. We also had good sports teams that could actually win things because we lived so close to LA. I wouldn’t have to worry about being called a frontrunner there since everyone was a Lakers fan. Now, people who don’t know where I grew up call me a frontrunner even though I still root for the Cavs and Browns.

Blog 61: One of the best two weeks of my life

Once upon a time I took a cruise around the Caribbean. I ate my fill of amazing steak and lobster and almost anything else that I wanted for a whole two weeks. I got to chill on some beaches in Haiti, zip line between some huge Jamaican trees, and I got to watch some amazing thunderstorms just off the coast of Cuba. It was amazing. I even met some people from Sweden who invited me to come visit them and hopefully I will take them up on that offer sometime. That was one of the best two weeks of my life.

One day, I decided to go on a big hiking trip with my dad and some friends. We planned it all out and hopped on a plane and flew to New Mexico. The trip was to last two weeks and we would carry everything we needed for that time on our backs minus some of the food which we could pick up at certain places along the way. We hiked an average of 12 miles a day and reached the top of four mountains during that two week span. I got to see some incredible sights and gain some great experiences.  That was one of the best two weeks of my life.

One weekend last year, I decided that I would plan a trip to California and visit my old neighborhood and see all my old friends. I got four of my friends together and told them about the road trip I was planning. They all loved the idea and my parents let us use a time share that they had for two weeks on Capistrano Beach. The drive seemed to go on forever and when we finally got to the beach we felt so relieved. We spent the next week partying on the beach and hanging out with my old friends who had their “green cards.” They grow it good down there. We even got into Disneyland for free because my friends dad works there. It was one of the best two weeks of my life.

Anyone wanna guess which one is fake?

Blog 60

So I am not exactly sure what I am supposed to be blogging about because it is just one word but I am going to stall until I think of a word. Hopefully I will get close to 250 words before I stop and  then I will be done with this blog for the night.  So I think I am going to pick the word sick. It can mean a couple different things. It can mean that I am sick of blogging for this quarter and that I just want to take a break and stop for the rest of the year or  that I am sick and I am going to not be able to get on my computer in a little bit. I went out tonight so I think I am going to pick the sick for the night thing since I don’t think I am actually getting very sick. Oh well, I am getting relatively close to 250 words so I am going to finish up pretty soon after I  get ready for bed and put my pajamas on and take my glasses out. Anyways, my roommate is getting pissed so I am going to go to bed right now. Goodnight everyone. Good luck if you have not finished your blog yet.

blog 55

There are a lot of things in nature that fascinate me but my favorite is probably mountains. They are giant and for some reason people always want to climb to the top of them. I have climbed a few mountains and I love every minute I spend on them even if I am exhausted after the climb. There is always an amazing view and I always feel like I am on top of the world, probably because it’s the closest I can be to actually being on top of the world without flying. Hopefully, I will be able to climb more mountains in my life. I am not a big fan of cold mountains though so that kind of narrows my options down a little bit but walking around the California rockies again in summer would be fun. Sadly, Ohio is kind of shitty when it comes to mountains and I would have to travel pretty far to find a decent one. I also like waterfalls a lot because they look really cool and are awesome. I also like some other part of nature that gives me enough words to get to 250 so I can stop writing and move on to the rest of my homework. That one is my favorite, but seriously I gotta go do other homework now so I am going to wrap this up. Mountains and waterfalls are cool and now that I am at 250 words I am going to stop  bullshitting and post.

Blog 54 i used to like the older ladies

The first girl I ever liked was pretty amazing. She was a tad bit older than me, but apparently I fell for her pretty hard. She was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on February 18^th, 1957. Like I said, just a little bit older. She was pretty amazing at turning puzzle boards and spinning wheels. Ya that’s right I had a crush on Vanna White, the lady from wheel of fortune. When I was little my mom said that I would always yell “Lets watch Vanna!” whenever wheel of fortune was supposed to be on. I loved the show and would watch it any chance I got. It made some good memories for me and my mom, and made me a beast at word puzzles. I don’t remember exactly when I started watching wheel of fortune but my mom likes game shows a lot and I probably had been watching it since I got back from the hospital. I am not exactly sure what else to blog about because I can’t really write a 250 word blog off of someone I have never actually met and therefore have no experiences with. I hope everyone else has an easier time writing theirs but I am getting tired and it is getting pretty late so I am going to have to go to bed.

Blog 51

I wish I could meet just about any recent president so I could learn how they deal with stress. Being the president is supposed to be the most stressful job in the world, and if you look at pictures of many presidents before their terms and after their terms they seem to have aged much more than the four to eight years they served. Obama started getting grey hairs not too long after he became president, and I feel like I am probably starting to get some grey hair after this last god damn two weeks. Each president probably had his own way of dealing with stress and it would be pretty interesting to find out what each one used. Bill Clinton’s strategy is kind of obvious and maybe he could teach me some things, but I would like to know what some of the others did too. Also, it would be interesting to hear about all the secrets they know about. I am sure there are a lot of things that is kept very secret that only a few people including the president know, like in that book from one of the national treasure movies. They probably know what’s going on in Area 51 if there even is anything there. Well time to go study for another math fucking math midterm I have to take in about 5 hours. I can’t wait for this weekend to be able to finally relax and practice my own stress relief strategies.  

Blog 48

So tonight I pulled decided to pull an all nighter so that I could get all of my engineering 181 homework done. I just finished and remembered that I had a blog to do tonight. Hopefully 6:17 AM isn’t too late because technically I still haven’t gone to bed. If you like TV when studying, it’s very difficult to find things to watch all night. It seems like I have to switch between comedy central, adult swim, and espn all night. Unfortunately espn was on another justin beiber bender and I stayed away from there most of the night. Currently I am watching fox news because everything else is having infomercials. At least there is important potentially world changing news and I don’t have to put up with too much bullshit. I can’t believe that there are so many countries protesting their rulers in the Middle East. I hope that all of the protestors are as successful as Tunisia and Egypt at overthrowing their unjust leaders. Hopefully these countries don’t waste their chance and put a worse government in place. I can’t wait to be done with my classes for today and finally get some sleep. I am not tired now but I know I will be in a couple hours. I guess I will just have to make some more coffee and do my best to stay awake. That is about 250 words so I guess I am going to study some more and get ready for class.

Blog 46

So tonight I learned that my brother is and his wife are going to open a coldstones creamery in the town that they live in. unfortunately that town is about 2000 miles away and I will have absolutely no chance of getting free ice cream unless i pay a couple hundred dollars for a plane ticket, and unfortunately I don’t think that would be very cost effective. I guess next time I visit him i will have to eat as much as I can to make up for the lost time. Unfortunately, tonight I can’t go out because there is too much work to be done. I have to finish writing my English article and i need to write two other papers that are due pretty soon. The dunk contest is on too and my Canadian roommates just got back from their hockey game so I will probably have trouble finding the time. these kids are crazy after their games and usually do some pretty entertaining things. I can’t wait for their offseason so they can go out every night and not just Saturday. There are like 5 of them in the room and they only brought back one girl so I’m a little confused as to what is going to happen in a couple minutes but it should make for a good story. I still don’t know if they won or lost but I am at 250 words so I am just gunna stop and go watch the dunk contest.

Blog 45

So I am currently in class right now waiting for a paper to be passed my way. I really want to go outside and play football with my friends because of the amazing weather but sadly there is still an hour left… hopefully when I get out they will still be playing, but there is a good chance I will miss out on a lot of fun. Oh well, at least I have time to knock out this blog so I don’t have to do it tonight before I go out and all my friends get mad at me for taking so long. I looked at the forecast for the next week and it’s not looking too good. I am going to have to enjoy every moment of warm weather that I can because it is about to get pretty cold again. I can’t believe the river melted either. There was so much ice and I say people walking on it not too long ago. I went home last weekend and when I came back and looked out the window I was surprised to see no ice. There was about 2 feet of snow back at my house and the transition back to nothing was extremely weird. I used to love winter, but winter without very much snow like here in Columbus is just awful. I am used to either a lot of snow or warm weather for winter and this is the first time I have lived where it’s just cold.

Blog 44

So I could probably just bitch about lie and how many papers I have to write that are due next week, but I don’t think I am going to do that. I think I am going to try to write about something else. I am not sure what that is and I am just going to keep typing until I figure out what to write because I really need to get this done so I can get to work on my rough draft due tomorrow. I guess I will write about how ESPN is pissing me off by talking about Justin Bieber every five god damn minutes. I am getting sick of this bullshit, it’s a sports show I don’t give a fuck about justin beiber, I want to watch some guy get dunked on or see the nfl draft predictions. I could not care any less about what movie these guys and their families went to see and how much they like it. If I wanted to listen to that garbage I would go on youtube and look up one of his dumb songs. Sorry if anyone likes him but I don’t, and I don’t like my sports shows being corrupted by things that have nothing to do with sports. Having to put up with Nascar and watching lebron james highlights all day is bad enough but espn needs to get its shit together.

Is that letter grade really worth your health? Blog 43

What would you give up for good grades? Would you risk developing anorexia, sleeping disorders, hallucinations, would you be willing to increase your chances of slipping into a coma, having a seizure, or even dying just to get an A? One would think that everyone would answer no, and yet thousands of college students across the U.S. abuse prescription drugs like Adderall and Vyvance just to get better grades. These drugs may improve your memory and allow you to focus better but they can also take a serious toll on your body and should only be used as prescribed by a doctor.

Blog 42

The abuse of drugs and alcohol is extremely relevant to college students and therefore people who will be reading my article. A very large percent of college students have abused drugs or alcohol, and I am sure that the ones that haven’t, know at least one person who has. People need to realize that prescription drugs and alcohol were not meant to be abused; they were made to help people who have problems or to provide clean and safe things to drink. Drugs and alcohol are popularized in movies and television and give many people the wrong idea about their usage every day. I am not really sure how else to explain the relevance of this topic, I feel like pretty much covered it in the first couple sentences. Somehow I am supposed to turn this in to two hundred and fifty words so I am most likely going to ramble and pretty much say nothing. Maybe I should talk about my day? I think blogs should have a more complex prompt so that I do not have to waste my time and the time of whomever else decides to read this blog. Oh well, I guess as long as I get points for bullshitting my way through this blog every night I will continue to do so. These things have great potential but I don’t think they are helping me as much as they could be.

Blog: 41

I think I need to pick a more compelling topic that relates more to the lives of students. Let’s be honest, nuclear politics is not as interesting as the Jersey Shore or as visible as something that is much more directly related to their lives like substance abuse by their peers.  The only problem I have is finding an interesting topic and relating it to my analytical research paper. I think I want to find a way to relate my paper to the abuse of drugs and alcohol and the way that alcohol was originally used mostly because it was one of the only clean and safe things to drink. Either that or talk about the abuse of prescription drugs that are made to help people who need them but are very often abused by students who depending on the drug are either trying to reach a new high or get an A on an exam that is coming up. Adderall and Vyvance, are some of the most commonly abused prescription drugs in college campuses across the country. These drugs are highly addictive and have some terrible side effects and yet people still use them. I have personal experience with them, and many people can relate to the abuse of this drug, so I believe these incorporating these things can make my new idea compelling.

Blog 40

My argument is timely because nuclear terrorism is a very modern threat. Nuclear weapons only recently became semi-accessible to terrorists because the U.S.S.R. just recently collapsed. The United States has also become the target of many terrorist attacks recently. Terrorist will always be looking for the next biggest thing to attack the U.S. with, and a nuclear weapon is their ultimate goal because of its extremely destructive potential. These terrorists don’t just go away, they are definitely still trying to attack us and looking for the best way to do it. It is a sure thing that we are going to be attacked again in our lifetime, and we have to get our government to do its best to protect us from nukes over any other problem we could face. It doesn’t matter if we all have free healthcare if one of our major cities gets nuked. People should stop trying to get the government to cut our military budget, if anything we should be increasing it. Our safety should be our number one priority and just because we don’t see the terrorists and they haven’t attacked recently doesn’t mean we should let them lull us to sleep.  I think I might have to change what I am writing about because I am not really sure what I am arguing. I think it should be that nuclear weapons should be dismantled and made useless so that they don’t fall into the wrong hands.

Blog 39

So I am not quite sure what kind of hypothetical scenario I am supposed to make up but I’m guessing it is what could happen if a terrorist got their hands on a nuke. So anyways, if a terrorist managed to obtain a nuke somehow, probably either from stealing it or buying it from Russia, depending on who they were, they would most likely attempt to use it on either the US or Israel. Let’s just pick the USA to make things easier. Their next step would be to smuggle it in to the country. They would probably try to take it in on a boat or put it into a shipping crate. Only about 6 percent of shipping crates are actually physically inspected or x-rayed and it would not be very difficult for to smuggle a bomb into a major shipping port. Once in the US, the bomb could be detonated pretty much anywhere. Depending on the size of the bomb, an entire city could be wiped out and millions of people could die in a matter of a few violent seconds. This is a nightmare scenario for the US government. Not only could millions of people die instantly, but the nuclear fallout could kill many more people and force more millions to evacuate. The worst part would be that we would have almost no way to retaliate or prevent another similar attack without completely shutting down our borders and wasting billions of dollars checking every container that comes in.

Blog 37

I wrote this on accident a while ago and since we can blog about anything i finally found a place to use it.

In episode 10 of Dollhouse, the creators bring a crazy concept into play, eternal life. If someone important enough decides that they want to live forever and can get the Dollhouse to decide the same thing, they can get their memories scanned into the computer. When they die, they can implant them into a doll and essentially live forever. This causes me to wonder what could happen to the world if the wrong people got their hands on this technology. I don’t believe that someone with the power to make themselves live forever could turn that down. Dollhouse is already a shady business, and with this kind of power, they could do some real harm. This also made me think, what if people wanted to trade bodies but retain their memories? This could be done quite easily with dollhouse. It could also make spying quite easy as well. Whole countries could be taken over by kidnapping enough people and using them to get close to the president or leader and then putting someone else in his body. I also wonder if clones could be created, if one could copy their own thoughts and implant them into multiple bodies.  I cannot even imagine the chaos this could cause.  Obviously it could be helpful by keeping great people alive but you still have to murder someone in order to make room. Maybe their time as a doll and they were used to keep important people alive then returned to normal, I would have less of a problem. Prison already takes time away from people and this would make them more useful.

Blog 30

So I am finally done with studying for midterms this week and it is time to start working on my multiple papers that are due within the next week… I’m so excited…  Unfortunately if I want to enjoy myself this weekend and watch the superbowl which I am very disappointed about by the way, I need to get my work done tonight and tomorrow. So I guess it is going to be another long night involving a lot of coffee and frustration. I feel like if I did not have to write this blog this week, I would be able to more easily write my paper. If I didn’t have to stumble through words tonight 250 mostly bitching about the paper I should be writing, I could be improving my paper and find more time to sleep tonight. I think that instead of writing a blog every night, the rough draft should just replace the blog points for this week so I can really focus on my paper. I know I am supposed to be writing about my paper here and get help on it but so far I haven’t even had the time to work on it because of all the things I need to get done in a day. So anyways, hopefully my paper will take shape tonight and I can write about it better tomorrow night. I can’t wait to be done with this and be able to just relax and return to a normal sleep pattern.

Blog 29

                So I went to the writing center today and I was told a couple of things. One thing I learned was that my topic is too specific. I went through like 50 topics trying to get one that was specific enough and now it is too specific. Luckily before I tore apart my laptop, I was told that my argument would work but I would have to make it much more complicated and detailed. I am not exactly sure on how I am supposed to do this, but I was told that I should talk about both sides of the argument and really dive into the details. I am a mechanical engineer and unfortunately not used to bullshitting my way through an argument to talk about every little detail and every aspect about my argument. I am being taught to say what I need to say in order to get the point across in the least amount of words in a class more pertaining to my major while learning how to turn one sentence into a seven page paper in another which I will be done with after this quarter. I see the value of being able to communicate ideas in the form of persuasive papers but I am frustrated by the lack of material I must use to do this. There are only so many facts about any one topic that pertain to an argument being made by the creators of Dollhouse. Sorry about the rant but I am extremely tired and need sleep. Goodnight

Blog 28

I chose to use another quote from the article that I discovered last night, as it is full of helpful information and projections. In this quote the two authors talk about the consequences of a nuclear weapon going off somewhere in the Middle East. They explain that even if the blast was contained to only the targeted country, the nuclear fallout could very easily fall in an important oil-producing country more than likely causing a shutdown of their oil production. Some of the Middle East oil is very important to many countries and could cause a lot of economic problems. The authors of the article used England as one example; if England were to lose its Middle Eastern oil, it would hinder their ability to cheaply transport food into their country. Therefore not only the price of oil, but the price of most food would rise significantly if a nuke was blown up near an oil-rich country. The article also mentions that using a nuke in to help protect a country from its neighbor would probably cause more harm than good.  A country like Israel which has nukes and is surrounded by potential enemies has a very good chance of harming themselves if they choose to use their nuclear arsenal. Nuclear weapons are out of control, there are very few cases in which they could be used to the benefit of anyone with good intentions. The weaponization of nuclear technology and its future dangers should have been thought about when the first atom was split.

Blog 27 Maybe wrote a bit much...

The quotes I originally picked were not sufficient for my purposes since I had to limit the scope of my modern day argument significantly. I will no longer be able to include examples about gunpowder or internet issues. Thank you to anyone who suggested that, they are good ideas but I found more information about nuclear technology and its issues, and chose to stick with it. As a result, I found a new article which caters more towards my needs.

Babst, Dean, and David Krieger. “Consequences of Using Nuclear Weapons.”  Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 1997. 1 February 2011.  www.wagingpeace.org/articles/1997/00/00_babst_consequences.php.

Nuclear technology has gotten out of control. This excerpt from an article by Dean Babst and David Krieger called “Consequences of Using Nuclear Weapons,” helps to prove my point.

The United States has a total nuclear weapons destructive force of 1,800 megatons, which is an ability to destroy humanity 18 times. While struggling mightily to reduce deficit spending, the U.S. is spending some $27 billion annually to maintain far more strategic nuclear warheads (7,250) than it can use without destroying itself.(16)

The United States itself has enough nuclear weapons to cause a nuclear holocaust 18 times over. One would think that as soon as a country could destroy the world twice at the most, it would stop wasting its money accomplishing nothing but making nuclear warheads more accessible to terrorists, yet Russia has done the same thing. It’s as if they believe having more nukes will make their enemies “more dead.” The money being wasted to maintain these excessive amounts of nuclear warheads could be used for more helpful things and can be looked at in the same light as Alpha in relation to Dollhouse.
            Dollhouse was created to help people enjoy themselves and better their lives. Unfortunately, a doll named Alpha went crazy and killed people then caused many problems for Dollhouse. So was the technology of splitting an atom. It was supposed to be used for benevolent things like producing cheap limitless energy and making many lives easier and happier. Unfortunately an “Alpha” developed and went out of control. Instead of plutonium being used to build better lives, it has been used to build weapons of mass destruction to hold the threat of the end of the world over our heads and throw our country into debt.

Blog 25

New York Times writer Matthew Wald wrote an article about the pros and cons of nuclear energy. One of the cons was that nuclear power plants are extremely expensive to build and took many years to complete. In the article, Wald says “Costs got way out of hand. Half the plants were abandoned before completion. Some utilities faced bankruptcy. In all, 100 reactors ordered after 1973 were abandoned. By the time of the Three Mile Island accident, ordering a new plant was unthinkable and the question was how many would be abandoned before completion.”(Wald 1). Not only were the reactors expensive and difficult to build, but there was great fear of accidents occurring that could be extremely devastating to the area around a plant. Many of the companies that were trying to build the reactors were not very experienced at building large projects that took many years. As Wald says, many ended up just cutting their losses and scrapping the builds before they spent any more money on them.
All these blogs are really starting to wear on me and I am having trouble reaching the necessary lengths every night. If I am to maintain a decent sleep schedule as well as study for other classes I must find a way to improve the length of my blogs. This is that way. I am sorry for wasting your time making you read this last paragraph but I need 250 words and now that I have accomplished this, good night everyone.

Blog 24

In an article written by Matthew Wald about nuclear energy and its history, he talks about the current status of nuclear reactors in our world today. He brings up the changes in the technology of the reactors and also improvements in old technology and how it is becoming a large part of our modern energy production. “In 2009, reactors are producing more electricity than ever before, about 20 percent of the kilowatt-hours used in this country, by getting more power out of old plants.” (Wald 1) In other words, old nuclear reactors are being improved upon to produce much more energy; in 2009, they produced about 20 percent of the United States kilowatt-hours.

While nuclear power can be helpful, it has the potential to be extremely dangerous as well. One example is the Chernobyl nuclear accident, thousands of people were killed and there has been a giant increase in cancer rates surrounding the site of the meltdown. This is similar to the memory implanting in dollhouse, being able to implant dolls with the necessary memories to do jobs that others would most likely fail at seems like a great idea. What if it goes horribly wrong though? This has happened once already with alpha and the Dollhouse hasn’t seemed to learn from its mistakes just as we haven’t seemed to learn from ours in the case of nuclear reactors. Sure, we take some steps to improve our safety but we let ourselves get lulled to sleep, in 2002, here in Ohio, boric acid ate away a chunk of the reactor and left it vulnerable to failure. Luckily it was discovered before anything worse happened but we obviously aren’t taking the necessary actions to foresee potential problems.

Blog 21

First of all, go bucks, we destroyed Purdue tonight, and it was a fun time, even from the nosebleed section. I am even happier I chose Ohio State over Purdue. Anyways, for blog 21, I read an article about the history of gunpowder. This article turned out to be very disappointing because it was extremely short. My blog tonight will probably end up being longer than this article was. It provided many links to find other information, but so does Google and I don’t have to waste as much time looking through the page for links on Google. The author starts out talking about how important gunpowder is, and how it is traditionally made of charcoal, an oxidizer like saltpeter, and sulfur for stability. The ingredients are ground together and the result is called serpentine. She does not really explain the difference between gunpowder and serpentine at any point, so I was confused. She then talks about how since serpentine is dangerous sometimes it is mixed with water or wine to reduce the danger of a spark setting off a fire. Then, she talks about how black powder is made which apparently isn’t the same thing but it is made with the exact same ingredients. She then talks about how gunpowder is so explosive because the saltpeter adds extra oxygen to the mix and allows it to burn faster. If there was no saltpeter, the mixture would apparently burn like wood. Then she talks about smoke, that’s how it ends, thank god.

blog 20

Raghuvanshi, Kulbhushaan. "Nuclear Weapons Pros and Cons." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. 28 Apr. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.

For tonight’s blog I chose to continue the nuclear technology theme, but this time focus more on the pros and cons of nuclear weapons, not nuclear energy. In the article, the author starts out with a brief history of the usage of the nuclear bomb and some of its basic pros and cons. He then lists the facts about nuclear bombs like how they wipe out full cities, how much plutonium it takes to make a nuclear bomb, and how many countries own nuclear weapons. Then he talks about some of the pros and cons about nuclear weapons. One of the pros is that nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent, countries are afraid to start wars with nuclear powers or their allies because of the fear of the ultimate retaliation, a nuke destroying their entire country. Also, if the nuclear powers got rid of their nukes while other countries like Iran are about to get them, who will keep them from using them on whoever they want? There would be nothing stopping Iran from nuking their enemies and anyone who said anything or tried to do anything to stop them. The cons of nuclear bombs are that there are enough nukes to destroy the world many times over, nukes are immoral, and that it is extremely expensive to maintain nuclear weapons.

Blog 19

I read the article about nuclear energy. The author started off by giving an overview about nuclear energy and its highs and lows in use. He explained that it was relatively popular in the late 50s and early 60s, but people soon realized that they could get energy cheaper through other fuel sources like oil or coal.  Then he explained how the nuclear reactor works, which would not be very useful to me in writing my technology gone wrong paper. He then goes on to talk about the birth of the technology and how it was weaponized by the United States. We made a reactor just to make plutonium which is needed for the bomb, and we considered the energy we created to be a waste product, not even a byproduct. Then he talks about the start of commercial reactors and that leads into the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The Three Mile Island accident was caused by the complexity of the nuclear reactor and its sensors, when a technology becomes too complex for people to understand, it becomes many times more dangerous. Unfortunately, the accident in Chernobyl killed over 400 people and that was just an accident, not even a nuclear bomb. He then talks about the problem of nuclear waste and what to do with it. Nuclear waste can’t just be thrown into a river or burned into the atmosphere; it has to be stored away in a safe spot until it becomes useless and no longer radioactive.

Blog 17

I am going to research examples of technologies that were meant to be used for good falling into the wrong hands and being used for killing and other harm. I think I will start my research with gunpowder since it was originally used for entertainment similar to Dollhouse, but now it is more commonly used for guns and killing. Next I will use some of the suggestions I received and research how nuclear technology turned from energy to weapons. Nukes could very easily end the world however nuclear energy could provide cheap energy for millions. I will also research how the internet is good or bad depending on who is using it. It is very helpful when someone is trying to make their lives more convenient through online shopping or emails or things like that, but when people send viruses or hack into things, it can turn out very ugly.

Wald, Matthew L. "Nuclear Energy - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 22 Jan. 2011. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/info/nuclear-energy/>.

Raghuvanshi, Kulbhushaan. "Nuclear Weapons Pros and Cons." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. 28 Apr. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/nuclear-weapons-pros-and-cons.html>.

Helmenstine, Anne Marie. "Gunpowder Facts and History." Chemistry - Periodic Table, Chemistry Projects, and Chemistry Homework Help. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. <http://chemistry.about.com/od/historyofchemistry/a/gunpowder.htm>.

"Brady Campaign Details Dangers of Guns." Opposing Views: Issues, Experts, Answers. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. <http://www.opposingviews.com/i/brady-campaign-details-dangers-of-guns>.

Deitrick, Angela. "Pros and Cons of the Internet in Todays Society - by Angela Deitrick - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. <http://www.helium.com/items/615202-pros-and-cons-of-the-internet-in-todays-society>.

Blog 16 Prospectus

So I think my analytical research paper is going to be about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Just kidding, that would be crazy. I have been watching Dollhouse every time I had to write a blog so obviously I am going to write about it. I think I am going to argue that technology no matter what it was intended for, can be used for bad things if put in the wrong hands and in the wrong situation. Dollhouse really sets this up because so far, it has been used for mostly good things, but it definitely has the potential to be extremely bad. I think I will compare it to things in this world that were originally designed for good but eventually used for violence and harm like airplanes and explosives and things like that. The only problem I think I will have with this is turning it into a 7 page paper. Hell, I think 5 pages would be difficult. I think I might need out watch more Dollhouse and find some more evidence showing that Dollhouse has the potential to be used for harming innocent people. There are plenty of examples of modern technology gone wrong but I do not want my whole paper to be about that. Sorry if this blog isn’t my best but I am kind of sick at the moment. Sorry

Blog Number 14 dollhouse 9

So apparently I missed out on a lot when I went out last night. There was a sweet cat fight and Echo took over the dollhouse and let everyone escape. Unfortunately, or maybe not, it was all just a test to see what they would do and see if their “glitches” would resolve. According to the doctor, the dolls just needed some closure and they needed to resolve their problems. Somehow human nature is winning out over the technology. In episode nine, I’m not gunna lie, I kind of liked the s and m Echo, but anyways at the scientist found out that someone was implanting the dolls secretly and remotely. Echo can tell something is wrong and in her basic doll state understands the imprinting process in a very simple way and offers to help by being implanted. The person secretly implanting dolls sends the detective’s neighbor, also a doll, with whom he is romantically involved, to tell him that she is a doll and that he needs to find out the dolls purpose. I assume its alpha that sent her. I also feel like Alpha is not just trying to bring down dollhouse, but maybe trying to figure out its true purpose and expose it to the public so he can regain his old life. Even though the mole turned out to be the security director, I believe he was ultimately put to work by Alpha not the NSA. I just can not see Alpha not playing a big part in this situation.

Blog 13, Episode 8

In episode 8, the dolls are remembering things that have happened to them. The management tries to fix this by doing something to their sleep. This apparently backfires and some of the dolls wake up and can think for themselves. They are no longer zombies and each form their own ideas of why they are where they are. This shows they are different and their previous personalities might be influencing the way they react. They all say that they can’t remember anything about themselves but know “the capital of Nebraska.” They are learning to survive by blending in and thinking. Echo has to go to the doctor and the doctor realizes Echo is conscious and knows something strange is happening but she doesn’t seem surprised. One of the dolls who woke up is found out and wiped. He goes back to being a normal doll and that makes me wonder how often the dolls do this. The awakened dolls decide to escape and the director knows this and doesn’t immediately try to stop them. I feel like this may be a trap or an exercise to see how well the Dollhouse staff reacts or how much the dolls end up remembering. I have been watching this on Netflix and my internet connection is slowing down terribly which causes the video to freeze for long periods of time. Unfortunately I have a very early and important morning tomorrow and I did not anticipate this taking as long as it is. So I will continue this episode on my next blog. Goodnight.

Blog 12, There are mansions in your eyes...

In Episode 7, we find out that Echo did not really completely volunteer. She was coerced or even forced into signing her life away. The boss lady was in a meeting with her trying to get Echo to sign and Echo said that she had been trapped in a room for two days and held against her will. The lady told Echo that all she wanted was her life for her life which leads me to believe that either someone is trying to kill Echo and Dollhouse they will protect her or that they are openly threatening her life. She also is told that she will be given her life back after five years. I find that hard to believe because they said that a dolls personality can never be returned after he or she is imprinted. I would never trust someone like that completely with my life, what is to stop them from just never giving me back my life. I would never know; I would be stuck in the doll state of nothingness and never remember their promise. On a side note, I though the whole college campus getting super high was pretty cool. I especially liked the random lines that some of the college kids had. If only it didn’t make people kill themselves… Oh well, it’s time to go out so I have to go. The window glass is coming for us!

Blog 11 Dollhouse Episode 6

In episode six of Dollhouse, the dolls start having feelings for each other. One doll gets an erection every time he sees another doll in the shower that he “loves.” The bosses are becoming worried about the situation because it seems the dolls wiping is becoming even worse. It seems as if the dolls are becoming more resistant to memory loss and Echo is leading the pack. The dolls are starting to think more independently and each of the main characters are remembering more about watch other like where they sit and how they feel about each other. At first, the bosses think that one doll has gone “Alpha” and started pretending to be wiped and just abusing another doll.  Eventually Echo’s handler discovers that it is not another doll that is abusing the other, it is the dolls own handler. This shows that the progression of the dolls own self awareness and independent abilities are not as bad as they had suspected. Near the end of the episode, it seems that Echo was programmed by someone to deliver the detective a message that the dollhouse is real and that there are many Dollhouses in many cities. Someone attacks the detectives neighbor and the boss of Dollhouse calls her house and uses simple words to turn the girl into a fighting machine and she kicks the shit out if the attacker. This shows that vocal or remote programming and wiping is not so far out of reach that the boss doesn’t know how to do it. Maybe she is keeping something from the scientist?

Episode 5 of Dollhouse

I watched the next episode of dollhouse for my blog. In this episode a senator comes to dollhouse and asks for help infiltrating a fanatical religious cult to see what is happening on the inside. He doesn’t want the normal government agencies to send their people in because they aren’t good enough. This shows that dollhouse is the best choice because they can make basically any person they want to make and don’t have to spend time training them or worry about their acting skills since they believe they are who they were programmed to be. Dollhouse has proved to be extremely helpful when used in the right way by the right people, but it can also be used by bad people because it is a private enterprise working for whoever pays the right price.  I think that if dollhouse was not a private enterprise and that honest people controlled it, not just for money, it would be very beneficial for the world. I also think that if instead of putting the dolls in a blank state between jobs, they should put them into their previous personality so that they can make their own decision for each job and can decide whether or not they want to do each specific job. That way, they would have more of a choice because they wouldn’t “die” after they agreed or were forced to agree to become a doll. If dollhouse could save previous personalities, it would be much more ethical and im sure they could get a lot more dolls to agree to help.

Blog 8: High School is Hell

Pass?

Blog 7 More Dollhouse

In episode four of the show Dollhouse, some of my suspicions about the scientist seem to be confirmed. He and Echos handler notice some of the dolls eating lunch at the same table and with the same people. The scientist compares them to bison and says it is part of their base instincts to form herds for survival. The handler is of course offended by the comparison of the dolls and beasts, proving he really cares about the people and doesn’t like the whole idea. The one thing the scientist can’t figure out is why they are doing this since he says he thought they all volunteered. Also, halfway through the episode, Echo is remotely wiped which everyone thought was not possible. The scientist and Echo’s handler are genuinely concerned for her well-being and the boss lady says that they need to rescue her to save the reputation of the company. Another thing to look at this episode is the remote mind wipe. Apparently it was impossible but it was obviously done and has the scientist thinking there is a big team of people trying to sabotage Dollhouse due to the complexity of the wipe. I have a sneaking suspicion that it could just be Alpha doing this since he seems to be out for Dollhouse and extremely good at everything he does. When Echo is wiped, she seems to vaguely remember certain things, for example when her partner tells her what her name is, she says she thinks she has a different name somewhere else. Something is obviously going wrong with the Dolls or the wiping system and I am interested in seeing what happens next.

Blog 6 Dollhouse 3

I think I am going to continue with the theme of Dollhouse for as many blogs as I can because I’m starting to like the show. In episode three, Echo is once again tasked with helping keep someone alive, further proving that the dolls are being used only for good. The company gives Echo the memories and personality they think she needs. They also give her certain needs or feelings drawing her to directly protect the singer. The problem is, the singer wants to die and so is a threat to herself and the company didn’t prepare Echo to deal with a problem like that. Echo thought for herself outside of what she was directly “programmed” to do. The security director sees this and is starting to become worried that she might go crazy like Alpha did and wants to put her in the “attic.” I’m not quite sure what it is but it sounds like a place where they send their dolls when they are done playing with them.  In the climax of the show, Echo saves her fellow operative Sigma, and becomes friends with her. Near the end of the episode, Sigma smiles at Echo and Echo shakes her head as if to say “don’t let them know we are friends,” hinting that she hasn’t completely lost her memories. This could foreshadow that Echo could turn into Alpha like the security director fears because Alpha apparently regained all the programming he had received without being implanted again and used it to kill people and escape.

blog 5 Dollhouse episode 2

                I chose to watch the second episode of Dollhouse because the first one caught my interest. So far this show is proving to be very entertaining and fun to watch. I keep having trouble deciding which characters are bad. The scientist guy seems to have flawed morals but I don’t think he is that bad at heart. He sees the project as art and enjoys his job and I am sure they pay him quite well. Echo’s handler is obviously a good person and doesn’t like the project but he takes care of Echo very well and even takes an arrow for her. I think where the real evil lies, is in the higher ups. But then again, they have only used the “dolls” to help or entertain people in exchange for money and that’s more than many companies can claim in the real world. Even the painful procedures the dolls go through could be seen as a necessary evil in some cases. It is very similar to surgery where in some cases the anesthesia just makes you not remember the pain of the procedure and doesn’t necessarily stop it from occurring. Surgery is a good thing and not seen as morally wrong to put someone through pain they won’t remember in order to help them. In the case of dollhouse, people go through pain they won’t remember in order to help others. It is in sense slavery, but they agree to it beforehand, although it is hinted that they have no real choice in the matter.

Blog 4 Doll house

I chose to watch the first episode of Dollhouse for this blog. When it started I was kind of confused at what was going on, but by the end I completely understood the whole concept, which was very cool. At first I thought the idea to implant complete memories and made up lives into someone was a good one.  That person could be good at many things and could be given great memories to make them happy and help others a lot. For example, in this episode the main character, Echo, has a date with someone and she seems to be enjoying herself very much. She loses this memory when she is called back to her handler to wipe her mind, but while she is on the date she is having a great time and so is the guy she is out with. She also becomes the ultimate “hostage negotiator” when a man’s daughter is kidnapped and he needs help with negotiating the transaction. She was given memories of many different people to make her into an expert and the best person for the job. The drawback for memory implanting is that the person who receives the memories has to go through a very painful process and is essentially “murdered.” They lose all the memories of their previous life and the person they were is gone forever. They are basically zombies after their minds are wiped and until they receive new memories. If not for this, the idea would be very good and extremely helpful to many people.

The Train Job. Blog 2

I like the episode because it is very plausible. It doesn’t include anything very fantastic for a SciFi show and it seems that this could be a very real future for mankind. I enjoyed how Captain Malcolm Reynolds and his crew and friends are trying to live free in a time when there is little freedom. They are willing do whatever it takes to survive but they still have compassion and care about others. For example, Reynolds agreed to become thieves for a local crime lord named Adelei Niska. I’m sure in a different time, he would never have taken the job, but he really needs the money so he has to do it. When he finds out that the cargo contains life saving medicine for a poor disease ridden town, he decides to bring it back and do the right thing. Even his crew is honorable and when Reynolds is left behind on the train, his pilot goes back to save him even though it might mean the crime lord Niska might try to kill him. The sheriff even realizes that these are good people and when he catches them returning the crates, he lets them go when he could have very easily arrested them for stealing the medicine. The episode was good and had some very exciting moments and I like it. Not because it is funny like a lot of the other shows are. My dad and I enjoy watching some of the others and laughing at how ridiculous they are but this show is much better.

Ryan Dickinson, Blog 1

My name is Ryan Dickinson and I am studying to become a mechanical engineer here at The Ohio State University. I am originally from Brea, California where I lived until I was 12, when I moved to Chardon, Ohio with my two sisters, Vanessa and Raven, and one brother named Josiah. The weather was a big change but luckily, I like snow and don’t mind the cold. I joined the Chardon Football team and learned to love the sport. I kept playing every year I could which unfortunately, was not all of them. My junior year when I decided to become a wide receiver, I hurt my back weightlifting. The official term was herniated disk and I ended up needing surgery to fix the problem. The doctors wouldn’t sign off on my physical to let me play my senior year because they said I would probably get hurt worse. I applied for two colleges, Ohio State, and Purdue University, and I was accepted into both. I decided to go to Ohio State because the tuition was much more affordable and my Army ROTC scholarship was withdrawn when they discovered my previous back problems. I plan on reapplying for the scholarship next year and hopefully learning here for free. I currently live in Morril Tower on west campus, and I am stuck in a 4-person room with only two other people. My roommates are very distracting and make writing very difficult, even more so when the Lakers and Suns are playing.