Finding Answers to Unspoken Questions

Is Whaling Taking a Dive?

2011-02-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

Usually lasting into the middle of March, it seems that Whaling Season in Japan is cutting their controversial sport short this year. To anyone who watches Animal Planet, one of many Discovery's channels , the show Whale Wars may have interested you at one point. In essence, the show is described as 'The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ongoing struggle to end Japanese whaling', according to the show's website. Though the television show won't premiere until Summer 2011, the Shepherds' efforts have not been interrupted.

During this whaling season, Japanese scientific boats depart to hunt whales for 'scientific studies', and then sold to the public as food products, a delicacy in the country. This year, however, their attempt at capturing the large, aquatic mammals has been significantly disrupted. Using only the Sea Shepherd, the main boat in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's (which will be referred to as the SSCS in the rest of this blog), the Japanese fleet's mother ship has been successfully chased out of Atlantic waters. Just last week, the fishery's minister has stated his fleet will temporarily return home to Japan. To the SSCS, this action is an incredible achievement, as many of the whaling boats don't usually go quietly.

Armed with water cannons and harpoons, the Japanese ships are indeed quite dangerous when tampered with. This season, however, they have decided the fight is not worth the effort. Though the SSCS has essentially one this season's war on whaling, Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd group stated, "We will however stay with the Japanese ships until they return north and make sure that they're out of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary." The Japanese halted their attempts on February 10th, but they have an opinion of their own on the matter.

Japan's Farm and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano stated publicly, "Even now the mother ship is being chased, and it is difficult to ensure the safety of the crew members." Japan's fleet consists of approximately 180 ships designed for whale hunting, which intend to kill nearly 1000 whales in this one season. Though every ship is technically for scientific study of the whales, most of the corpses will eventually end up in the food industry as various preparations. Even with such an immense fleet, the SSCS has managed to stop this practice by preventing ships from drawing the whales onto the ships. Many Japanese citizens claim not to consume whale on a daily basis, yet still feel the interference from activists is unjustified and disrupting a cultural tradition that has been carried out for centuries.

As this season comes to an end, the SSCS, as well as many anti-whaling efforts carried out by Australia and New Zealand, the Japanese have successfully been given the message, though this success will be short lived, as next year will be just as chaotic for all activists, and possibly with more challenges. Fortunately for hundreds of whales, they can live out a fulfilling life, without the possibility of being slaughtered.

Personally, I applaud these activists' efforts, and am very glad that our planet's ocean will have a little less blood in the water this year. If any readers would like to continue and follow these efforts, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has its own website, where information will be constantly updated, as well as give an opportunity to donate to their efforts. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that these activists, in unison, will be able to dismantle the destruction of whaling, and cause it to inevitably take a final dive.

Poverty with Broken Kneecaps

2010-01-20T02:19:00.000-08:00

As Haiti enters yet another week of dealing with the chaos wrought upon its already impoverished streets by the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince early January 12, the damage is now showing its grim face. Efforts to bring the country out of poverty may have been set back "by many, many years," said Stephen Randall, a senior fellow at the Canadian International Council. Though seriously set back, the major efforts of multiple aid organizations will eventually be able to place Haiti back on track, though life will forever be changed for its people.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive set the confirmed death toll to 72,000 yesterday, though estimates of the damage range up to twice that number. As well as human life, the socio-economic infrastructure has suffered a fatal blow as well; with major looting and violence occurring on a widespread basis, the fractured police and military forces are unable to put a cap on the problems in the streets. Businesses and government are unable to recover from the disaster due to the widespread mayhem, and a sort of global anarchy has spread amongst the Haitian people. Unfortunately, the violence has lead to the death of several aid workers in the past week, and many injuries amongst the population.

With that said, Haiti still needs all the help it can receive. Both the Red Cross and UNICEF are still accepting donations via text, phone and through their websites, as well as other charitable foundations. For more information, refer to my last blog post for the links to all of these sites. Also, check out the upper right hand corner of my blog, where I have placed a Socialvibe link to help send medical supplied to Haiti. Simply do an activity (it's not an annoying poll or anything) and you can help for free!

With the readers help, Haiti may be able to overcome this disaster with the least amount of pain inflicted on innocent lives.

Haiti

2010-01-16T01:33:00.000-08:00

The disaster in Haiti may be one of the biggest of this century; with an estimated 100,000 dead and nearly 40,000 more victims trapped, aid cannot be put off any farther. Many countries have begun to lend a hand in the effort, with hundreds of smaller organizations pitching in to provide both food and medical supplied to those in need. With one of Haiti's main hospitals crumbled, doctors local and foreign struggle to provide much needed medical care to many families. Some suffer only minor cuts, while others have received completely severed appendages. Regardless of the injury, the Haitian people need the help of anyone who can lend a hand.

Several non-profits, such as the Red Cross, have set up text donation services, allowing cellular subscribers to donate to the relief fund and have the money deducted directly from their monthly statement. Both UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders have set up pages to accept donations as well.

Though many websites have been established to collect funds for Haiti, it is an unfortunate part of our society today that several are merely scams. The Daily Beast has done quite a good job of sorting through many of these scam sites, leaving many very legitimate charities to choose from.

Hopefully this information has cleared any donation questions up, however any readers can feel free to contact me or any of the websites listed above.

California Wildfires: And We Thought California was 'Going Green'

2009-08-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

As I look up on such a lovely summer night, I am greeted with an almost mystical array of red and orange clouds. At first thought, I had a bit of fear toward the nearing apocalypse in my mind, but a whiff of burning wood brought my head back out of the clouds. Another set of wildfires, nearly 100, are smoldering their way through California once again, demanding more of our precious forests as sustenance. Even though I live nowhere near these fires, I still can almost feel their presence right over the next mountain because of all of the smoke in the air. This smoke had me wondering, if I can see it a hundred miles away, what exactly is it doing to our environment? Have all our green efforts gone to the dumps?

Its a well known fact that California has very strict emissions standards. Our air is supposedly incredibly clean in comparison to many other states in the U.S. Californians truly take pride in our green state. Both Santa Cruz and San Fransisco our world renowned for their environmental awareness among other things, and the culture of those places truly reflects that. Green buses, cars, some people not even using gasoline. Many people in these areas make great efforts to have as little impact on the environment as possible. Unfortunately, these areas are now under siege by fire, which in my opinion, just blew years of green work.

These fires are huge footprints over these areas, throwing carbon right back up where people have attempted to remove it. All those green cars are now put to waste as these easily preventable fires have simply replaced the would-be emissions. All of those nasty greenhouse gases we continuously mull over explode all over California, and slowly spread globally. Its amazing fires aren't banned in California, they seem to be more negative environmentally than anything we Californians are doing to our state.

The point is something must be done about these wildfires before we worry about furthering green energy. Without these flames extinguished, anything we do would be put to was anyways. It's the responsibility of Californians and tourists here to keep our forests safe, and not spark up any new fires, for it is essential if this nation wants to 'go green'.

Also, I'd like to thank all of the brave firefighters who are risking their lives right now to attempt to put out all of the fires and end the chaos in the golden state.

Some things make no sense...

2009-05-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

Chemical companies like Celanese, Dow, BASF, Eastman, oil companies like BP and Shell, and numerous other companies around the world produce butanol. They have big research budgets, and they would love to find an economical direct gasification route to butanol. These companies have looked at probably thousands of catalysts, and people have spent their careers working on this problem. The challenge is that syngas (produced from gasification) doesn’t like to form butanol. You can form a little bit directly, but CO (carbon monoxide) likes to do lots of things besides form a C4 alcohol like butanol. Scientific, I know, but Wikipedia could probably explain this process better than I could here.

Anyways, Methanol is not a problem. You can also produce ethanol, which is what Range Fuels is planning on doing (although you almost always have methanol to deal with as well). But the selectivity falls off sharply as you go to higher alcohols. By the time you get to butanol, you are lucky if 5% of the product is butanol.

So why does any of this amaze me? This is all known technology. It has been looked at for 50 years by multiple big companies spending untold millions of dollars. The economics simply don’t work, because of the very low yields. But a small company in Oregon still got someone to give them money to work on it:

"The only way Diesel Brewing could get its start was through Oregon’s business energy tax credit program — one of the most robust in the nation. The tax credit is worth 50 percent of their $1.4 million in capital costs," Stapleton said.

And then they also suggest that they will be profitable:

“Raines doesn’t expect to make a profit until the 100-ton-per-day plant is running.”

Don’t get me wrong, butanol is a fine fuel, and I have a special fondness for it (It burns quite well as a camping fuel). I would like to see it work out. But my observation is that people are seriously underestimating the difficulty of economically producing butanol from biomass.

Fine Swine and Wine

2009-04-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone and their mother has heard about the new variant of the swine flu epidemic, but it seems as if not one person actually knows how to deal with it. The Center for Disease Control seems as if it is merely probing at how to stop it, and the World Health Organization is just creating an uproar using its colored system of danger. And yet, it is becoming quite apparent that no one knows exactly what to do.

Based on what the media is showing them, families all over the world are concocting pitiful attempts at 'swine flu care kits', collecting things such as surgical masks and TheraFlu. Is this really necessary? A mask is not going to protect someone from contracting a rogue strain of viral proteins. What the populous should be concocting are letters to the CDC and WHO, telling them to spend less time causing a riot and more time distributing anti-virals, such as Tamiflu. As of late, WHO is only sending anti-virals to third world countries, with full knowledge that the
epidemic has spread far beyond those bounds.

There are 109 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States alone, 257 others in 11 countries. Every country that has confirmed cases just happens not to be a third world country. I find it a tad bit strange that our global resources are heading into countries that haven't even seen evidence of any swine flu symptoms. Why should anti-virals be going to Africa if the true pandemic is in the U.S. and Europe? Both WHO and the CDC have to get their acts straight, and distribute resources to the communities who actually need protection from this epidemic. The rest of the populous, however, doesn't get off clean either. People in these malaise-ridden areas should be less concerned about how much Gatorade and cough syrup they have stocked up, and more about how to actually prevent the virus from infecting them in the first place.

World, please step up to the plate and actually do something useful for society...

Just Tivo it...

2009-02-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

I love my DVR. I couldn’t imagine life without it. I haven’t watched a commercial in so long that I kind of enjoy the occasional advertisement when we get side-tracked and forget to fast-forward. I love how I don’t have to stay up until 12:00 to watch House.

My sister also absolutely loves it. But, she doesn’t realize it’s the DVR she loves, she thinks it’s the normal TV. She thinks she can request any random show and that we will be able to turn it on. She doesn’t understand the sentence, “It’s not on right now.” She gets ultra impatient and demands we turn on whatever show she’s requesting. Luckily she has around 10 of her favorite, Wow Wow Wubbzy, recorded.

I think the DVR and other related technologies, like the internet and cell phones, are turning America into a country of 2 year-olds. I am not saying the technologies are bad; they’re amazing and good. What I am saying is that people cannot carry the on-demand DVR mindset over to other areas of their lives.

As we have so clearly seen in the past few years, the general public has demanded more and more under the spell of immediacy. They demand a bigger house than they can afford. They demand higher pay at a job that they don’t deserve. They demand luxuries that took their parents a lifetime of work to acquire. And when the negative consequences of the above actions reveal themselves, they demand the government provide these things. The consequence is a lack of personal responsibility and a never-ending increase in government spending and taxes.

Thinking about it, the current 25-50 year-old population did not grow up with on-demand technologies, for the most part. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in 25 years when generation X has grown up and the demand mindset is fully ingrained in everything they do.

Just a rant..

Is peanut butter more important than cars?

2009-02-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

The current outbreak of salmonella poisoning in the peanut and peanut butter industry is an example of lax government oversight that will only get worse. Remember the milk crisis in China? The tainted jalapeno pepper/salsa problem last year? Bad farmed salmon from South America? Mad cow disease in American cattle?

The NY Times wrote an excellent piece on the Peter Pan peanut butter salmonella mess, which started with a family-owned processing plant in Blakely, GA. Workers weren’t paid good wages, temps were used, roofs leaked, rodent schmoo on the floor and government safety inspectors who were over-stretched. A recipe for disaster.

Sounds pretty appealing, doesn't it?

This type of thing, though not common in the least, is happening all over. As company profits dry up and workers let go, and as the government eases up supervision due to lack of funds – food safety problems will multiply.

And can’t you just see a bunch of marketers stepping up to the plate, injecting the market with "premium" foods that sport higher levels of quality control under the facade of “pure-natural,” or “healthiest choice” or others of the sort... this simply positions the lower cost items for those who simply can't afford the premiums. Whole Foods, for example, is already catering to these up-market consumers.

The government needs to step up here and pump some serious stimulus money into cleaning up
the food industry. Let’s put the search for the car czar on hold and clean up a food plant or two first. Food safety before car bail-out.

A double-edged sword

2009-01-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks, I have been following the Gaza-Israeli conflict after seeing some tragic pictures a fellow student posted on Facebook. If you are not up to speed on what is happening there, here is a short video reporting on the issue:

This conflict has fueled a fire inside of me, for it reminds me of the sheer brutality mankind can wreak on one another. Pictures of the destruction in both Gaza and Israel litter the internet, showing the hidden truth behind what seems to be a justified fight as seen in the Youtube video above. There are no justification to such brutal tactics used by both sides, such as using white phosphorus, a lethal chemical, to hide troop movements, or launching rockets into civilian-populated areas. Sure, Israel is trying to clear out a terrorist organization from Gaza, good for them... but bombing areas populated with hundreds of innocent civilians? Absolutely uncalled for; if 400+ lives is the price to pay to defeat Hamas, something radical must be done. Israel seems to think it's justified because Hamas is launching missles into its land, but killing men, women, and children is not the way to show them who's boss. It truly pains me to see that man cannot even have formal conversation with one another, but rather resort to mass destruction.

I can not tell who are the 'good guys' in this conflict. Neither side seems to be attempting to help the other resolve issues peacefully. Israel, which is primarily portrayed as the 'good guy' in much of America's news seems to be causing more evil than Hamas has done to Israel. Gaza didn't deserve such a horrible takeover. At the same time, Israel does get some respect for trying to defeat terror. In my opinion, this matter is a double edged sword, one which seems to be hacking away at valuable life without a certain end. I truly do hope something is resolved soon, because noone deserves to go through a conflict as this.

Writing it all down....

2008-11-29T22:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I finished up my 7 day food journal, trying to write down everything I ate in specific. I wound up with a fairly simple list of foods, pretty much unwavering for the majority of the week. Although I have been keeping a food journal such as the one we were assigned to do already, I still came to realize several things over the course of the last week. Other than just showing ones calorie count and general eating habit, this journal showed me how little I've actually been eating lately, in comparison to before I started dieting, at least. It's amazing how I've been able to stay conscious some of the days... eating only jerky and oatmeal and all...

After reading the article entitled 'Taste' Mr. Cope gave us in English, I also realized how much some people appreciate food as an experience, rather than nutrients. The people in the story seemed to live for food, not eat food to live. I do feel like both the culinary expert in the article and myself have something in common, however: we both take food too literally. In the instance of the food expert, he analyzed the wine in the story to the extreme, as if it weren't food at all, but rather an art piece. In my case, I eat food based on the nutrients,not on how the food actually tastes. This food dilemma makes me wonder how many people are like me, or even like the culinary expert. I feel as if everyone has an eating problem, either thinking too much or not enough. Either way brings eventual discomforts in life, which makes me wonder: what is the midpoint?

The answer to this question is going to linger on my mind, but as of now, it's bed time

An Obamaian Era

2008-11-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight was a late night, sipping on heavily- caffeinated beverages to try and keep my eyes open while I watched the votes count up on my TV screen. I found watching such political coverage quite exciting, something I never have felt in any previous election. I felt at this one point, the entire country was sitting together in front of the television in a way I couldn't describe. At this one point, the news couldn't spew lies, and was even politically twisted news channels (like the one named after a certain animal) had to reveal to the nation what was going on at this point. This moment was a history making time, something that has instilled new hope in me for the health of the country.

When Barack Obama was revealed to be the new president-elect, I was mainly just excited that change was coming for America. Once he made his acceptance speech, however, I was struck with much more than just excitement. This feeling blew me away, I felt proud of the future, and saw change becoming reality. It was an amazing feeling.

I reflected upon my previous blog posts at the time of Obama's speech, about how all of these problems plague our country. I see now we may be in the midst of something that will reverse or inhibit many of our problems; the economy, the war, our rights seem to have taken a step up the stairs of justice. Perhaps in the coming years, we will be seeing America as a place to cherish, not to worry about.

The trampoline we call the economy.

2008-10-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

As I was feasting upon my oatmeal this morning, I watched the NASDAQ crash 100 points within ten minutes of the New York Stock Exchange opening. As this is seemingly now commonplace, I proceeded to take another bite of my breakfast. As the news progressed in it's daily routine, I noticed something peculiar, the price of gas was dropping... I wondered why such a thing would happen in such a dire time. Upon listening, I discovered the demand for oil has dropped drastically (A written version of what I heard is hyper linked to the picture on the left).

I worry now that this has occurred, as there's no way gas can drop from nearly 4 dollars a gallon to 2 dollars and some change in a few months without a serious catch. Sure demand dropped and prices along with it, but doesn't that imply that once the prices reach an all time low that people will begin buying again? I feel this price plummet will worsen our current oil crisis, while padding the stock market with just enough money to raise prices once again, only to start the same cycle anew.

This drop in oil price can mean nothing good. Yes, we shall have extremely cheap gas for a month or two... but the prices are going to skyrocket and throw the economy on its knees again, and possibly even worse off than it is now. And on top of economic pain, we are going to feel the effects at the gas pump. I already tried to fill up my tank yesterday, only to stand in line behind ten or twelve other furious customers. People either need to learn how to keep conserving gasoline, just as if the price were still 4 dollars, or horde the discount fuel and learn that the price will spike to record highs...

This economic crash is leaving so much in our everyday lives crippled. All of these little numbers we see on TV everyday are now effecting the way we go about our lives... I never thought that these stocks would bring such a profound effect to the everyday. Hopefully soon, something will cushion such a crisis, because these low gas prices and sales everywhere are just the catch to something horrendous.

Click here for a link to an interesting video about the effect of the gas prices on our local providers.

I don't know if I'm having bad luck or what....

2008-10-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

I honestly think blogger has something against me... I post, but then where did the post go? Obviously not onto this blog... it took me 3 HOURS to realize where all these posts I've been making have gone to the 50% of the time. Apparently, I had a blog from 2000 that is linked to the same account as this one... and all of my posts were going to that blog instead of this one... fun stuff...
Anyways, I deleted that blog and hopefully all of my posts will arrive safely at this blog...
I may be able to code a mean website... but blogging is not my niche...

Climbing out of the mainstream and into the river of truths

2008-10-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

Just the other day, I decided our school's Fall break would not be complete without at least one day of binging on Youtube videos. Though I do believe I lost several parts of my brain to the process, I did manage to find some beneficial and intriguing media in the process. In particular, I came across this video:

I learned something new from this single video, something not even the hundred Rick Roll videos before it could compare to. I saw a part of our society, a part of many societies that wanted to take the world around us by the collar and report the truth. I saw people who didn't want to accept mainstream media; I saw people like me, who want change. The change I believe we all want might not come from legalizing ferrets, marijuana and the ability to purchase tanks, but rather from changing the way the world sees the rest of the world. I mean, instead of seeing "We are winning the battle in Iraq!" maybe we can see the destruction and the other side, as shown in the video. This is exactly how I feel the media should be faced with, the truth as shown by those living in it, not by a single reporter.

If y'all want to check out any reports from people around the world, outside of the mainstream, click on the link after the break:
Video Republic

Going green starting to wilt my patience..

2008-09-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was traversing the rocky hill we call the internet. After clicking every one of my bookmarks, checking my email and hoping there's more than two dollars in my bank account, I decided to check out the KION website for the latest news. After reading about the recent stabbings and chaos that occurred in Salinas over the last few weeks, I stumbled across this lovely link, the KION Going Green site. At first glance, I thought to myself how it's pretty cool that our local news station is trying to help the environment, but after thinking about this concept more and more, it began to grind my gears a bit...
First of all, I found the overall hypocrisy of such a concept quite confusing. A news station, who is using more energy than an entire lower class neighborhood in Salinas trying to promote green living? Kind of odd if you ask me... and if you've ever seen one of the news vans around town, you may notice another hypocritical action. These vans are RUNNING constantly, using gallons of diesel fuel to make a simple 10 minute clip for the station. So these stations are telling me to buy a new fridge to save energy, when they're going to using 20 refrigerators worth of fuel in 10 minutes? Honestly, I'll do my part to go green, but I rather not hear how to from a source that is more of a brown...

19th Stabbing...

2008-09-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

So as of writing this bog post, there have been 19 shootings/stabbings in Salinas this YEAR. What is happening to the world? Why are so many people destroying the lives of so many others? In my opinion, it's a simple answer, really. There is a drug problem in Salinas, and it's not just the users who are affecting the community. It's the distribution. It's the sales. Gangs are vying for control of
'turf' to sell their goods. What's causing the violence is greed, the greed to make more money for themselves and the rest of their 'family'. These people you see being shot and stabbed, they are trespassing on these families land... this may sound a bit extremist, but it's true. Sure drugs and gang activity are illegal, but it is NOT going to stop such a deep rooted community. That's exactly what a gang is, a community... a family. And when one family crosses a rival family, violence ensues. The police are looking at these homicides as mere assault, as ruthless violence towards another innocent life. But if one thinks about the situation from a gang member's perspective, that innocent life seems much more hostile. That life could end one of your family's; they are trespassing on your familys' property. It's self preservation that's causing this violence.

Now this is going to sound quite idealistic, but something of the sort needs to be done. A middleman has to intervene between these rival gangs and create a cease fire. Gangs are made of people too, they has morals, they will listen if someone helps them out. They don't WANT to kill others, it's for protection. But something has to be done, or otherwise this turf war is going to continue, and more life is going to be lost, guaranteed.

The plague we call the news

2008-08-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

Every morning, I wake up at 6, sluggishly drag myself out of bed, make breakfast, and proceed to sit down on my couch, turning on the only thing that crushes the effectiveness of coffee on my mood: the news. Honestly, I don't watch the news only for the information it crams into our minds, only to be spewed out at the next person you see in order to prove your exquisite knowledge of Barack Obama's favorite cuisine... I watch these broadcasts as entertainment. No, I'm not a super-political beast, nor do I follow foreign affairs as a seagull would a french fry... I just love watching what corruption the media has become. Sure, the political aspect of the news is well... news, but then the broadcast gets to it's "Breaking News Stories" with explosive 3D effects and epic whooshing noises. Good lord... something terrible must of happened, right? Well yes, something did happen; a man was shot by his son in Oregon during a heated fight. Now sure this is news, but telling the entire nation this tragic instance? I believe this may be a little over the top...

Now here's the kicker: I come home later that same night, expecting to be greeted in a manner such as, 'Oh hello son, how was your day?' or merely a overthought 'Why were you out so late?', but no... I get a 'You better not shoot your dad like that kid on tv... you're showing the 5 signs they showed on the news...'

So at this point I smirk and head to my bed-chambers (had to say that at least once), wondering if perhaps more than just my mom had thought of this one instance as a sign of a mass father-son slaugter-thon. Perhaps every mom now keeps a knife under her pillow, waiting to defend her partner when their blood crazed offspring attempts to tear into his father... what has this world come to? People are being scared off in the millions by one channel on national tv, because some kid had an over the top moment, that unfortunately ended up in a death... because of ONE reporter, people all over the nation now think their kids are crazy. Media is corrupting a nation. And people buy this garbage, because station X is 'The number one source of national news' *cue corny whoosing noise, followed by the logo... I feel like I'm watching the world end in some blockbuster movie, not watching everyday life go on. Half of what these reporters are saying is so exaggerated, it makes eating fast food scary, and eating vegetables a trip to hell. If I eat a big mac, my life will be decreased by 15 minutes? If I eat lettuce, I'll be eaten alive by microbes?? Garbage... if only we can have news that matters, not filler gossip that sparks more fury than something even a presidential candidate had said... my lord, what a corrupt nation.

I'll wrap my rant off fairly briefly, just with a simple word of advice. Anyone who reads/watches/ hears the news: please don't go bananas over a shooting or a bad batch of Cheerios... your son or your breakfast have almost no chance of killing you... please, go vote or something...