School is coming to an end again and I realized I've been on Blogger for nearly a year. I've had over two thousand hits and a hundred posts. I've put all sorts of bit and pieces of me here, panic and joy and...things. It seems kinda significant now. I wonder now if someday I'll come back here, after college and years and read it and think "I did this?" "Oh, I so got over that. How was it such a big deal?". It's kinda funny. Just for the sake of nostalgia, I'll put a few more bits of me up now.
The Song In My Head- Originally by Sixpence None the Richer, this version by Alassë Suiauthon.
A Couple of Photos I Like
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| Gorg lighting. |
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| Doesn't it look delicious? Especially the cowlick. :) |
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| From the Thistle. |
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| Simplicity. |
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| I wish my hair would do that. It's one reason I envy dark-haired people. White flowers look | beautiful in their hair. |
My Final AP History Essay (You don't have to read it.)
The United States is continually advancing technology. This nation is the birthplace of the electric vehicle and the PC. NASA put the first man on the moon. America has been at the forefront of creative thinking at science for decades. I believe the country will continue along this track of advancement. However, if we don’t find a way to reduce global warming, I believe humans will have to go off-planet and live elsewhere. I think the United States would be one of the first nations to create spaceships and send people away, despite lingering memories of the Challenger explosion. I believe this will eventually happen as America seems to be thoroughly dependant on electronics and fossil fuels. When a new space race actually occurs, nations will be at odds with their rivals and I see the United States stepping in as a peacemaker as in the Yom Kippur War. I think the United States will be a technologically advanced nation, moving away from Middle Eastern oil, but still dependent on electricity and electronics, such as the Internet.
The United States has continually been one of the world’s most technologically advanced nations. Ever since its origin, America has been refining techniques and ideas. In the 1700s, Virginian tobacco was renowned for its smooth flavor, unlike anything else in the world. Not long afterwards, Eli Whitney created the cotton gin, which revolutionized the cotton market. In the twentieth century, American scientists created the first atomic bomb, followed shortly by the hydrogen bomb. Within a century, America put a man on the moon, invented the PC, the blog, the GPS, Mars rovers, Segway, and bionic contact lenses. However, most of these inventions (and all of the recent ones) require either electricity or oil products to work. American advances are dependent upon oil and gas products and, more recently, electricity. It’s as though the US is addicted to oil and electricity is the first step in a recovery program; it’s still a “drug” so to speak, but it’s not as bad, not as addictive.
Even though electricity is cleaner than oil, it still contributes to global warming/climate change. Oil is still used to produce the electronic items. This combination of dependencies is leading to the downfall of humankind. I believe that we must become less dependent on oil and gas or leave Earth almost altogether. It sounds extreme, but we have become too dependant upon modern appliances. We wouldn’t survive if oil and gas or electricity supplies suddenly cut off. To continue surviving in the changing world, I believe we must cut back on our consumption of man-made products and prepare to leave the planet.
Leaving the planet is not a revolutionary idea. Many hit movies and books, such as Avatar, Battlestar Galactica, and Across the Universe involve people living in oil/electric dependent worlds that are dangerously polluted. The characters leave their worlds and join others in naturalistic, paleolithic lifestyles. Our world is within reach of the type of technology needed to do so. In fact, NASA and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) scientists are already developing a project called the “Hundred Year Starship” that would take people to the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos, the first attempted non-orbital spaceflight since the explosion of Challenger. The “starship” would not return to Earth, suggesting NASA is looking for ways to colonize other planets, not just research them.
As global warming becomes a more prominent issue, I believe other nations will begin researching non-terrestrial colonization. This would likely lead to an international “space race,” similar to that of the 1950s and 1960s. If people need to get off-planet as soon as possible (following the eruption of Yellowstone, for example), military invasions of advanced nations would likely occur. I believe the United States’ relative geographical isolation in North America would lead to its stepping in as an international peacemaker, as happened in the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel, Syria, and Egypt.
I think the United States will continue to be a technologically advanced nation, however, it will continue to be dependent upon oil and electricity; resultantly, I believe nations will begin a “space race” to find a method for extra-terrestrial travel and colonization. American inventors created many commonplace items, such as the PC, GPS, and blog. Most of these inventions rely upon oil and gas products or electricity in order to be useful. This continual depletion of natural resources will eventually lead to the downfall of humankind on Earth, in the pattern of a predator/prey relationship. To counteract that end, scientists will need to develop spaceships to carry people to other planets and moons. When such a “space race” results, the United States will need to step in as an international peacekeeper to prevent military invasions of technologically advanced nations by less advanced nations. The US’s comparative physical isolation from the rest of the world should help us to remain neutral while advancing our own technology.
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