Sarah Palin and Shooting Wolves

People will remember Sarah Palin. But whether they remember her as John McCain's VP candidate or for saying things like she can see Russia from her house and that she shoots wolves from helicopters is another thing.
Recently, her wolf hunting ways have been called into question. According to a Scientific America article a site has recently been launched dedicated to stopping her.

What I find interesting about the article is not only the subject matter but the use of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos within. The article is featured in a column called "Ask the Experts" lending to its credibility. Within the article they appeal to Pathos by quoting a movie star, giving a glamorous image to Sarah Palin's opposition. They further appeal to Logos by stating such facts as:

"According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, predators kill more than 80 percent of the moose and caribou that die there in a given year. To keep predator populations in check, the state currently has five wolf-control programs covering about 9.4 percent of the state's land area."

Overall I just found the article interesting for it blended appeal. I would also suggest reading other people's comments to it. Its very interesting to see how others react and what they react to.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=palin-shooting-wolves

Ideal Living

My ideal life style would be to live in a campus like town. Groceries, Jobs, Libraries, Movies, and my friends and family within walking distance. Or at least I'd like to live in a place with a better public transportation system. I'd love to have cheap, healthy food available to me. Or even just the option of Kosher food without having to pay for it to be shipped in from Atlanta. Really I'm just looking for to college.

Saving the Planet

Over the weekend I was watching some YouTube videos with my friends. One of them was "Saving the Planet" a George Carlin skit. Its amazing how relevant his skits are. I won't link to the video as the content may not be considered PG or school friendly. However one of my favorite lines from the opening is:

"Save the planet, we don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet."

He goes on to how environmentalist don't care about a planet they just care about a clean place to live. But I wonder if it really matters? If by making our own habitat cleaner and we help the earth does it really matter why we do it?

Maybe the planet doesn't need saving but it might not hurt to try and live a little cleaner.

This Blessed House

The differences between relativist and fundamentalist is reflected in "This Blessed House" through the characters Twinkle and Sanjeev. Twinkle is more of a relativist. She readily accepts the presence of another religion in her house. Sanjeev represents a more fundamental set of belief. He, unlike Twinkle, does not accept the Christan influence in the house left by the past owners. Because they have opposite sets of beliefs they have issues compromising through out the story. They never really come to an agreement about things like the Virgin Mary statue that Twinkle finds so beautiful and Sanjeev wants nothing to do with.

How Can Garbage be Green?

Following Mr. Reardon's link to Scientific America, I was intrigued by a headline: "Japan's Green Garbage".

Well in Tokyo, Japan it turns out there is not that much space for them to dispose of their garbage in landfills. So they came up with the brilliant idea of burning all their plastic waste!

Okay, wait...I thought that burning garbage, especially plastic was a bad thing for the environment. Doesn't it release all types of pollutants into the air? How is that green?

The Japanese have found a way to burn plastics a filter the pollutants released so there is little impact on the environment. This allows them to better use the land available to them for things other than landfills. They even use the heat produced from burning the plastic to heat a community swimming pool.

See the video here: http://www.sciam.com/video.cfm?id=9526737001