Summer Breaks in College

What ever happened to those summer days with hanging out with friends everyday?  Remember those summers of constant sleepovers and hanging out everyday by the community pool.  Is it that when we grow up that things change and people change along with it?  Or is it attributed to the fact that we just grow up and these things are less appealing.  Ever since I entered high school I have been working.  Summers now are less for fun and games and more to develop experience for the real world for when we leave college.  I hate to say it because I miss those simple times, but it is what it is.  Summers nowadays involve taking courses over the break, internships, or full time paid positions.  What ever happened when we were kids are just mere memories.  I hate to sound like I am reminiscing about the past because that makes me sound like a grumpy old man, (which I hope to never be) but it is the truth.  When I graduate I plan to take one full month off and relive some of these childhood memories.  I urge everyone to do something similar because everyone is always still in some capacity a kid at heart.  It is probably said somewhere that we must let our inner child relax at some points in life.  I bet some Freudian psychologists would argue that.  I know I would.  I know the first thing I am doing this summer after I unpack and stuff is to hit up some of friends and see what they are doing.  Maybe I can convince them to do something we used to do as kids in the summer.  That’s going to be plan.  I hope it works.  Have a great summer break!

Truth About Natural Gas

Recently I saw the documentary, Gasland in my Media and Democracy class.  It was quite compelling because it showed the real dangers with fracking natural gas.  For those unfamiliar with the process, hydraulic fracturing is pretty much drilling a hole into a well and pressurizing or pumping the water into the ground to then extract the produced water that contains mixtures that form natural gas.  The problem with this system, however is that it leaves environmental impacts on the environment.  This process contaminates water supplies and pollutes the air.

Companies like Halliburton and EnCana Oil & Gas take advantage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 because this bill exempts fluids used in hydraulic fracturing from policies like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.  It wasn't until last year, after the documentary was released that Congress proposed the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act to make it so these companies disclose the types of chemicals they use for these processes.

Unfortunately, one year later Congress still has not passed the bill. I wonder if it is for political reasons (We are in an election year and gas companies are major lobbyists and campaign contributors on the hill).  So what are the repercussions to "fracking?"  Well for starters fracking leaves detrimental effects on drinking water.  Gas companies request to lease the land of private citizens to drill for gas in exchange for a nice check to landowners.  What they do not know is after they agree to that, their health will start to deteriorate.

Gas companies say it is safe to drink from the tap, but it is not.  After they agree to lease their land, the water becomes contaminated.  In the film, they show some families whose water had become flammable.  And if it isn't the water that leaves, lasting neurological and physical effects, (i.e headaches, brain damage, fatigue, cancer) it is the air pollution that surrounds fracking sites.  After extraction, they have something called "produced water" that is whatever is left after the fracking process.  Typically the companies let the water to evaporate if they do not put it in streams or rivers.  After a while the water does evaporate, but it ruins the quality of the air because it emits tons of gases like methane and such into the air.  This can then create acid rain which can affect vegetation.

I just found this documentary shocking and inhumane as it looked into some eyebrows it raised because the government is not fully protecting its citizens.  Certain policy changes can and should be enacted to change this.  I find it mortifying that thousands of Americans have to live like this.  The whole video is on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E61okw2RlzE

Multimedia Devices: Helping or Hurting the Youth of America?

While I was growing up, my parents used to lecture me about how privileged and blessed I was.  This was due mostly to all the things that my generation developed around.  In my parents’ time, there was no such thing as a mobile phone, a computer, or an iPad.  If my parents seeked any form of entertainment, they went outside and played.  If they wanted to communicate with someone they would actually talk with them.  Unfortunately, nowadays if you were to tell a kid that, it would be the equivalent of speaking a foreign language to them.  With the use of multimedia devices, it has become so easy for people to forget some of the most basic things we do as human beings.  That is to socialize.  Now could be that we are moving forward in how we socialize? I doubt that is the case.  Could it be that we live such busy lives that sometimes we choose the convenient way of sending a text or posting something on someone's Facebook?  This could be true.  Technology is always finding more ways to make our lives easier, yet is it really helping or hurting our social interactions with others? My question is, does this having lasting implications on the youth of America that is getting more involved with these processes?

Going back to my parents, I think I can relate more to their childhoods because up until maybe middle school we used to entertain ourselves.  We were self-sufficient in that regard.  Prior to that, we didn't have cell phones.  If given the choice between going onto the internet and having a "play date" we'd take the play date.  I have a little seven year old cousin.  My uncle is contemplating getting her a blackberry.  I didn't get a cell phone until I was twelve and guess what it was a hand-me-down Nokia in black and white with no keyboard nor camera.  I was only allowed to use it for emergencies.  The thing is kids these days are growing up in a much different world compared to the one people my age grew up in.  That was not all that long ago and if you look at the future, you have to wonder if there any damaging effects from this on kids.  I mean kids are socializing in different ways through texting and Facebook at much younger ages, but is verbal communication and physical interaction being overlooked?  I think it is called our formative years for a reason.