Dan’s Blog

The Environment December 19, 2005

In 2006, most of the world will live in an urbanized area. Somewhere in this upcoming year the steady increase of people inhabiting cities will finally tip the scales and the majority of the world population will live in the city instead of the countryside. There are plenty of criticisms to make, but the one I will focus on is the environmental one. One of the oldest arguments of the environmentalists is one of pathos. During legal battles, they, the environmentalists would bring out photos of the areas in question and say, “Hey isn’t this beautiful? Can you imagine how much more magnificent this would be like in person? But, judge many people will never get to see this sight, and every generation after us will never be able to see it either. Shouldn’t we save it for them?” It was and is to be a continuous uphill battle for all the environmentalists. Saving the fields of Alaska once didn’t save it forever, in a few years another person seeking to drill would contest it and sooner or later, the environment would lose. So now that most of the population will be living in an urban jungle, shouldn’t we strive further to protect the natural wonders of the earth so that when we finally emerge from our manmade homes seeking refuge from the rest of mankind, that we should still be able to forget the brick, metal and concrete that we see each day by nestling in the habitats that mother nature so blessedly gave us? Will I be able to see Mount Kilimanjaro before the permanent ice caps become seasonal? For that I only have until 2015. Also, Glacier National Park may not have a glacier by 2030. Natural wonders are slowly going belly up and the chances that I’ll be financially set in enough time to see them is slim. Will my progeny be able to see the natural wonders I still hope to see? The odds are set against them with scientists believing that climate change will alter a third of the world’s forests with projections of mass extinctions by the end of the century.

Another problem is that as the country that I dearly love is too caught up with its own sense of justice to even start to begin doing what is right. We’re the number one producer of CO2 but because China (#2) is exempt from parts of the Kyoto protocol we won’t ratify it? The rest of the g8 ratified it. And yes I understand the criticisms of the Kyoto protocol, but should that really have stopped us from signing it? Making sure that this world stays intact is the right thing to do, we do live on it. We don’t have another planet to live on if this one croaks. Also, another reason we shouldn’t have avoided the Kyoto protocol is because I believe that the US prowess in capitalism will surely spur technological changes to meet new standards. Are we not ratifying Kyoto because we are no longer savvy enough to quickly meet the standards? I believe someone dropped the gauntlet and the US isn’t meeting the challenge.

On another note, we need to figure out this energy problem, we can’t just keep drilling for oil. That is just a temporary solution to a permanent problem.

Thanksgiving November 24, 2005

So i was just thinking about thanksgiving and well both my parents immigrated here in the 70′s. When in the world did someone go up to my dad and tell him about thanksgiving and tell him that he had to eat a turkey that day? I was wondering how in the world were my parents integrated into the american culture? What agents were there in my parents’ environment that would americanize them? I know i’ve been celebrating thanksgiving all my life, but i’m pretty sure my parents haven’t. I wonder if there will be a breaking point in which there will be so much immigration that we can’t integrate everyone. Instead of a melting pot, we could be a few seperated substances, like oil and water. Why is it that the U.S. of all places seem to be able to tackle integration while a great many places in europe are having so much difficulty?

Forgot… November 10, 2005

So i forgot to mention a few things in the last post. This should be part of the second paragraph somewhere. There are barriers to entry into this market. The new firm would have a lot of advertisement and time costs as the buyer has significant brand loyalty.

So Much To Say November 9, 2005

Well i’ve been having a rough time recently. There’s things that have bothered me and well all i can say is that my impact bias has been failing me recently. i’m not an expert on impact bias though, but anyway, i’ve had a few likely possible futures that i’ve acted out in my mind, this way i can avoid them if possible. If i can’t avoid them, then the feeling i would get from the event would be less compared to the possible pain of the hypothetical event. Well just to my luck, the event happened and there is negligible difference between the strength of the hypothetical and realized pain. The longevity of the feeling is still to be seen. Good luck to me though, i usually pull through anyway.

 Anyway,  the reason i get into these problems is easy enough to understand. Think of a market with only one firm and the demand it faces is perfectly inelastic. The firm in this problem becomes the price setter and the consumer(me) becomes the price taker. So I have to eat whatever price the firm sets its product to, which leads to very high prices. It’s a very unhappy game. I just hope that things usually excluded from economics will have an effect on prices, such as fair play or respect.

Hmm October 11, 2005

    Well, I could quite possibly have an anger management problem. I get angry easily, very easily, just one bad remark, or just a simple act of rudeness pisses me off. I use to not be like this. I use not get angry at all, but recently, somehow everything is a pet peeve, and everyone deserves to be punched in the face. But anyway, here’s something that annoys me, the dining hall. It’s overpriced, and I have to set aside at least an hour to eat. If I go during any regular meal time, I find myself having to wait at least 15 minutes just to get one item of food, and it’s usually not very healthy either. On a side note, I’m a very impatient person. But anyway, I do have a choice when going to the dining hall. I don’t always have to wait in line for a greasy cheeseburger. I can also make myself a salad, serve myself cereal, or only wait two minutes using the waffle iron. Well, they all sound good, but the average cost per meal for my meal plan is around eight dollars. So I can pay the dining hall $8 and serve myself something more or less healthy, or pay them $8 so I can stand around until they can give me a heart attack on toasted buttered buns. I have no qualms eating fatty foods though, so it’s just the wait that bothers me. On and on, let’s see here, for $8 i can serve myself food that costs considerably less than the paid amount, or get in line to have them at least serve me something that someone would pay at most $5 for. The salad usually wins.

    On a brighter note, swing went well today, no kelly, but I was able to practice. This weekend is also looking pretty good, except that I was told to bring stuff for the rain. I don’t even own an umbrella, and my jacket that is waterproof doesn’t even have a hood on it, so that’ll be ineffective.

I don’t know September 27, 2005

I have no idea what to write about. My friend gave me an invite and well since he invited me, I might as well use it. I still have to figure out what type of theme I should consistently post about. Well then, when i figure out on what theme, I’ll start writing more often, but for now I have some school work to finish to make sure I can go to a foam party on friday and a small trip to athens for the weekend. Oh but for now, i made a small find that made me happy, I recently found out about a nice sized party called Sensation that’s held in amsterdam twice a year. I’m sure everyone across the pond knows about it, but it’s hard to find people around here that listen to any type of techno. But nonetheless, one of my new goals in life is to make it to Sensation, or another comparable event.

Hello world! September 23, 2005

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