Photostory

I read or rather, watched this audio video story about high school students who chose to go on a summer campus to train like militaries.

They train all day, managed by true militaries.

The audio file presents different stories of students who explain why they chose to do that and their feelings about patriotism and how it is important for them to serve their country.

The pictures describe different activities, like shots gun or physical training.

However, the students are very often presented laughing and smiling.

This photostory is effective with both audio and pictures. I am not convinced that only pictures could have the same effect without the audio file.

The pictures are, for most of them, some portraits of students with dirty on their faces and doing the activities.

Yes we can!

I read this article from the WWF, one of the most famous organization for the environment. 

They propose different easy and quick steps to help to reduce the global warming. That's is really interesting because these are some easy stuffs that we can do in our everyday life. It doesn't cost any money or time.... just good sense.

The first idea is to reduce the energy consumption, like checking the lights, thermostat for heater and water to avoid spoiling. You can also turn off the appliances when you don't use them.

In a second time, they give us some other advices to allow the reduce of emission like using public transportation, or plan, combine trips to drive more efficiently. Some of these solutions can cost money in the short term but if you see to the long term it is a great deal. For example, insulate your house can appear expensive a the beginning but it will allow you to spend less money in the energy consumption at least.  You can also switch to green power with low or no routine emission of carbon dioxide.

These are some solutions, ideas, easy and fast to reduce the destruction of our planet. Don't think about it, just do it!

The Air Pollution by the WHO

I read this article about the air pollution. It is about a the terrific consequences of the air pollution on health according to a research made by the World Health Organization. It shows that the air pollution around the world causes 2 millions premature death each year. How? With diseases such as respiratory infection, heart disease and lung cancer.

Air pollution has not only bad effects on the global warming and the environment but also on the health of humans. We destroy our planet but we also kill our chances to live longer and in good health.

The Who provides a new guidelines with stronger rules about protection of air and this, in order to reduce about 15 percent the number of death per year.

Scary when you just naively walk outside to go to work.

Let's see if countries will follow the new guidelines.

I found this article about the dissappearing of bees in the US.

That's a very interesting article because it explains us that we discovered that bees ar disappearing but we still don't know why. However, the problem has a name: Colony Collapse Disorder. And it has a real impact on the earth life because bees contribute of the pollination, balance of the ecology.

It is also interesting to see that this problem concerns only one specie of bees: The honeybees. The 1500 others species of bees in the US are not concerned by that.

Mnay theories try to explain and give the reasons of the phenomena but nothing was prove. Some survey was conducted about that and scientific made severals hypothesis. "pathogens; deadly mites; lack of genetic diversity in the bees; widespread pesticide use and even urban sprawl that spreads homes and streets across wild fields of clover, alfalfa and flowers, all sources of bee food."

In this case, it hard to find a solution to a prob;em if we don't know the cause. I really hope they will figure out very soon.

Facebook in the crowd

Almost everybody "is on Facebook" or at least, heard about it.

I feel very interested in this topic because it shows new sociological issues about our generation.

The role of Facebook, which was only a social network, has taken huge proportion today.

I read about a story of a young intern in a bank in London, asking to his boss if he can miss friday because one of his relatives died. His boss, suscpicious, check on facebook, finding some pictures showing his young intern, drunk and dress like a girl, when he was supposed to be in a mourning.

Facebook is fantastic because you can easily keep in touch with all your friends (even if a huge part can't be considered as friends) but it can also be dangerous.

It is a kind of spying and you can become crazy, for example, if you have a guy that you like on your friends and check his profile every 2 hours.

However, most of them like that. Me, I hate when people update every 3 hours their comment profile, telling their life. That's just too much.

I use facebook to share pictures with my friends in France, it is easy.

But I am always very interested to know story about facebook, then I found this article.

The certainly very common story about a guy who has almost 700 friends on Facebook and try to create an "event" and only one person came.

Pathetic but so true because it shows that facebook is only a facade, and there is nothing else than real contact with friends.

Story of stuff

I watched a very interested video on line that you can see here 

It is about all the system of production and consumption of goods, from the scratch (the ressources of our planet) until the end (the consumption, recycling or incineration).

At the first look, it sounds pretty much true but when I saw it again I though that everything she said describes only pessimistics facts.

She is right, the current system destroyed our planet but how about all these jobs and the economy which allow people to live and eat.

The debate is a huge one and we have to rethink the all system. And not only in the US but all over the world. Hoe can we use our ressources in a better way, allowing renewable ressources, with provide jobs and happiness? Big deal uh!

I don't have the answer but she proposes some issues at the end like substainability and equity but in my opinion it is not enough.

I mean that people won't be ok to live their job to save the planet and starving just because people consume less and then we don't need to produce more goods.

We will have to start from the scratch, the basis : EDUCATION.

Teach people how to consume and how to respect what the planet offers to us.

That is what we forgot to do before creating the materials economy.

France is not very different from the USA. We consume less but we still consume a lot. However, a recent study show that 25% of the consumers goods are faire trade adn ecologic, that means that there is a demand for this king of product.

This video won't influence my consumption habits because sometimes, you have no choices to shop in a store which provide cheap goods from the other side of the planet. It is still a question of income. Lots of people can't afford to pay for better goods because they still are more expensive.

The connection with the global warming is clear. Because we have more access to products, we consume a lot, then industry creates dioxin and when we finish to consume, we put them on the trash which also create carbone dioxyde (non recycling products are incinerate and!). then, we have pollution on the both side : production and consumption.

The financial crisis in Dubai?

I choose to read this article because the title was significant. We all have heard about the power of this little country with its strong economy and finance. 

For me, the actual financial worl crisis is not very clear or maybe not very real. I have heard about a "crash" for a long time. Maybe one year ago, or more, in France, every medias liked to write about it, warning the politicians, economists, consumers and companies. but no one moved or try to make something helpful to solve this potential crisis.

Today, it sounds more close, because even Dubai, the "untouchable" is touched.

Big building projects of hotel complex or skycrapers are cancelled. Everybody is afraid about the crisis even the richest people in the world.

But what will happen next if even one of the most powerful place is touched?