From my guest blog post at guzmanlg.com/blog (Oct. 15, 2009)
I should start by saying that I am a glass half full kind of a person. I sat down to write this post with optimism in mind and list easy, everyday steps we can take to reduce our carbon footprint, such as: unplug your appliances, use cold water (for laundry, not in the shower), keep your tires properly inflated, bring your own grocery bags, etc. But during a twitter distracted moment, I found a link to a website listing the top 100 effects of Global Warming. I started reading down the list. It covered a wide spectrum from animal lives being endangered to the end of good French wine. As I kept scrolling down, my eyes widened and my heart whimpered as I read the words “Say Goodbye to French Fries”. The description read: “Scientists from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research say warmer temperatures are killing off wild relatives of potato and peanut plants, ‘threatening a valuable source of genes necessary to help these food crops fight pests and drought.’” What! I love animals and I am part Italian, so I love my grapes, but Global Warming is threatening french fries! Almost every child old enough to eat solid foods knows the golden arches of McDonalds. You bet they would be unplugging everything in sight if they knew it would save french fries! How many times have you said, “Lets grab a burger and fries”? I bet more than a few. So lets try reusable water bottles and compact fluorescent light blubs, if not for the animals or the grapes or any of the other 97 reasons, lets do it for the fries!
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* Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web. <o:p></o:p>
www.blogactionday.org<o:p></o:p>
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* Top 100 effects of Global Warming<o:p></o:p>
www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html<o:p></o:p>
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My guest blog post at guzmanlg.com/blog.
Their sits a man, a man in his early seventies with a balding grey head. In his striped collared shirt and his blue jeans he dawns head phones and an iPod as he rocks out to, what sounds like, country music. With all distracting sounds isolated, the man can focus on his crossword puzzle. “16 Down…” he mutters, “Ovation…”. Apparently, today’s crossword puzzle is oral. Too bad he is not reading the entire puzzle out loud, this could have been a fun group activity. I sit in my corner of the “L” shaped air conditioned trailer and wait; wait for my name to be called, wait to go to lunch, wait for something, wait, wait, wait. I’m at Jury Duty. The Jury Room clerk announces that the only people who will be excused from duty are the ones who produce their own death certificate. I guess I’m not going anywhere soon.
I continue to sit patiently in the grey, unexpectedly, thick padded chair, with my laptop open, catching up on emails and watching my tweets. Apple has just commenced one of their big events where they unveiling new products. Just a few minutes into Apple’s presentation, Twitter became overwhelmed and inactive, overloaded with Apple lovers’ excitement to spread the word of Job. That’s Steve Job. Taking a break from my computer screen while Twitter regrouped, I took in my fellow jurors who sat in our corner of the “L” shaped trailer.
A lot of reading was happening: books, newspapers and magazines. The business men and women, most whom attempted, and with little success (since they still have a pulse), to get out of their day of civic duty, tap away at their keyboards, flip through papers and cross reference information on their iPhones or Blackberrys. The man sitting in front of me is an attorney who is still not sure why legal professionals should be summoned. The man sitting next to him is a commercial airline pilot who just came back last night from piloting an LAX to JFK turn around trip. His name was called, not for jury duty, but because he accidentally left his car in neutral and it rolled out into the street. His subconscious was telling the world, or at least the Court House parking lot, that he didn’t really want to be here. And finally, the man sitting at the table: his beast of a laptop is probably three inches thick when closed. I deduced that he is a high school football coach by the copious notes he takes while watching a game on his laptop. Here we are, your jury selection for the day. All of us anxious to be excused, fearful of hearing our name called out. At least we get to go to lunch early.
Once back from lunch, a trial is in need of a jury. One by one, names are called and people rise from their chair, leave the trailer and head to the fifth floor. One woman’s name was called and her response was: “Ah Dang!”. Why is it that people look at Jury Duty as an unwanted responsibility? Today’s excuse is that people can’t afford to loose a day or more of work. It’s true, but what about when the economy was thriving? Why is it that Jury Duty has always had a stigma around it? I guess in our busy, ever quickening world, who has time for civic duty?
Today the Wall Street Journal had an article about electronic books and now textbooks being offered electronically on iPod’s and iPhone’s. My first thought was “Wow, what a great tool!” How fantastic it will be for students to work on homework literally anywhere you can have your iPhone. College graduates will enter the working world with better posture now that all their textbooks combined will weigh less than one pound. And, now with the technology of the Kindle e-reader you can travel the world with multiple books without the hassle of actually having to pack them. But, the article got me thinking: will this tool, be used as just that, a tool, or will e-books become our future?
I am a huge proponent of the electronic age; I don’t leave home without my iPhone (and when I do, its like I have left my right arm behind), I text, twitter and blog. But, the thought of phasing out books feels like a crime. What will happen to the textbooks filled with highlighted key points and scribbles in the margins? The Kindle e-reader not only allows you to read books, but also newspapers. I get a soothing feeling from reading a physical newspaper and turning the pages, and maybe getting a little ink on my hands. I like reading books and folding down the corners of the page. And yes, the Kindle does allow you to highlight, write in the margins and bookmark a page, but it just isn’t the real deal. As I came to the end of the article, I felt sad at the thought that this could be the foreshadowing of another piece of the analog world becoming obsolete.