final paper 2

In doing the research for this paper, I explored the idea of global population growth over the last century and how that has increased global consumption of goods worldwide.  Global population has exploded, due to technology progress to make living conditions globally better and advances in medicine and other things. This has allowed what were previously considered third world countries to make advances in their purchasing power and join our American ways of consuming and disposing of goods and contributed to the obsolescence of all things in their countries as well. This also contributed greatly to the amount of "garbage" that is not biodegradable in our planet. It makes me wonder if continued export of our way of life is the right way and how we can change things before they reach a point of no return. Interesting thoughts....how they will fit into my paper will be also interesting.

Facebook the end

Facebook is all over the place; television, news programs, Oprah. Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed on 60 minutes recently, which he used to make his official announcement that Facebook was changing the appearance of its profile page. Talk about being accepted into the older generation's world of power and greed! Now Zuckerberg has been named Time Magazine's Person of the Year, making him the youngest man ever to be bestowed that honor. This puts him into the company of people like Mohandas Gandhi, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler and more recently, Barack Obama and Ben Bernancke.  That is because they are recognizing him using the criteria "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year".  I'm sure that there are many that are still scratching their heads at who Mark Zuckerberg is, but when this article is published, it will introduce him to a population who has never heard of facebook, much less created a profile page of their own. This may partly be due to a generation gap, but also people who are leery of sharing too much personal information on the web. There are many others who feel that although his work has created something that has changed the way that facebook users use the computer and look at social networking, there are still millions who don't have access to clean water everyday, much less a computer to update their statuses. So how could he be Person of the Year? Because he has changed the lives of 500 million people who share their pictures and status of how many cows and beans have been planted on their imaginary farms? Because now I can find out if my 2,000 "friends" are together, broken up or just hookin' up? I don't know if the phenomenon of facebook has truly influenced the events of this year but it has certainly has an effect on most people ages 25 and under.  So since many of the future movers and shakers of the world interact with him everyday, I guess Mark Zuckerberg is the Man.   

final paper

I've been ill recently and had promised to stay on top of the work required for class but sadly have overestimated my abilities. But I am trying to get caught up. I'm glad that one of the topics that we can choose to write on is Made to Break by Giles Slade due to my recent addition of technology into my life. I just had a pacemaker put into my chest and though it is a life choice, the battery has a life of only between 5-8 years, which means it needs to replace in that time. I plan on using our book and the research I gather to see how much of this obsolescence is true verses the companies suggested times for everything. It all seems to be a money game in the end.  But actual lives are in the balance every time an invasive procedure is done, and because not everyone has the basic benefit of health insurance, the costs are prohibitive. Anyway, that's a basic outline of what I plan to write on.  I hope it is relevant and interesting to you as well.