Well folks, I would like to start off by apologizing for taking a little cebatical from the blog and never taking the time to write exactly why. For the past three months or so I’ve been studying for an engineering licensing exam that kind of took over my life and then planning a two week adventure to Thailand. Now that I’m back from Thailand and have no academic burdens, I’m ready to start having big boy discussions about many important topics. So much has happened since the beginning of 2010, but it would be exhausting to try and cover anything in the past so I will start looking forward. New posts coming soon.

Happy new year everyone. Been on a break from posting during the holidays but will be back to regular posting in about a week. Enjoy the holidays.

Vampire Weekend released another track off their upcoming album Contra. This new VW album is going to be great for this winter. Their music has something summery about it that makes me forget about the cold and quiets the urge to throw myself off the bridge on the way to work (just kidding!). The web sherriff has been all over this one, so only streaming today folks, but give it a listen on their myspace page. Stay warm.

Listen Here

I thought I would highlight a few of the main controversies regarding these talks and also highlight the dilemma that President Obama faces in his scheduled speech this Friday.

Climate reparations?

As the world becomes globalized, technology has spread to countries that has helped lift people out of poverty and driven nations like China, India, and Brazil to develop exponentially in the last twenty years. It is no coincidence that this rise of development has occurred in parallel with industrialization and the spread of energy and resources; after all, that is how the U.S. became the superpower that it is today. Unfortunately, development also means heavy use of fossil fuels and increased CO2 emissions. These developing nations are concerned that the US has been able to spew all the CO2 they have wanted in the past 200 years and are now trying to take that right away from developing countries and stint their development. Poor nations are even saying that rich nations have an obligation to put in extra funds to help them develop in a sustainable fashion in a carbon constrained world.  Although we might not want to hear it, they have a point.

350 ppm and 1.5 degrees Celsius

According to scientists, 350 parts per million (ppm) is the limit of CO2 in the atmosphere if we want to live a normal future. The only catch is that we are currently at 390 ppm, which means we have to reduce CO2 emissions dramatically… and fast. Corresponding with this CO2 limit is the limit on global temperature rise, where the debate has teetered between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. Currently, the US climate envoy Todd Stern says that given the current amount of Carbon in the atmosphere and the political climate, 2°C is the best we can do. The catch is that, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a neutral research body), a 2°C global rise will mean a 3-4°C temperature rise in African countries which could result in 1.8 BILLION people without water. Therefore, African countries feel in a sense that they would be signing their own suicide pact.

A perfect example of the possible effects of this is the War in Darfur. Many people mistake this war as primarily only a religious war. Although both sides happen to be of different religions, this war exploded to what it is today from a fight over the water resource of Lake Chad, which has dried up slowly due to increasing global temperatures. This war has left 300,000 dead and 2,000,000 Africans displaced.

US pulls a fast one

The US has pledged to reduce its CO2 emissions by 17%, which seems in line with what everyone else is pledging as well. However, that 17% reduction is based on 2005 levels while every other countries reduction commitment is based on 1990 levels. This effectively puts the US reduction commitment at a pitiful 4% of 1990 levels.

There are other issues I could bring up but this post is long enough already. Many people are looking forward to Obama speaking on Friday and he has a lot on his shoulders. Leaders are hoping that he can put something on the table that will break open the doors between the developing and developed nations. To do this, he is going to have to show everyone the US is serious about contributing to this effort. Unfortunately he is walking on thin ice because if he pledges a large monetary or reduction commitment, the Republicans will have a hay-day with it and use it to drive Democrats out of the job.

Obama has said before that he believes the country that develops the mainstream technology for clean energy first will lead the global economy. There is ABSOLUTELY no doubt this is true. I hope he still believes this and starts to play hardball on an issue that was one of his top during the campaign but has seemed to play second fiddle to other policies during his presidency.

Well even if it is, I personally love it. One of my favorite forms of media from this age of information overload is the podcast. Podcasts are a fantastic way to keep up with what is going on in the world. We are so busy these days that a lot of times we don’t have time to sit down and read the newspaper or even watch the news. Most of the time I find myself listening to podcasts on the way to work on the train or sometimes even at my desk if I ever find myself doing repetitious work.

Everyone is affected by what is going on in the world, whether they would like to think it or not. Knowledge is power and with the vast amount of resources out there, we should all be seeking to take advantage of what is available. There are tons for entertainment purposes too if you just want to sit back and hear a good story. So, I suggest you check out some podcasts for yourself.

While I am a self confessed moderate liberal, I’ll still give you some recommendations of my favorites. Please comment and leave some of your favorites as well, I am always looking for new ones:

Democracy Now! – A good overview of today’s news and a showcase on some of today’s most pressing social and political issues that often aren’t covered in mainstream media.

KCRW’s Left, Right, and Center – A great 30 minute fired up debate of current issues between (as the title says) panel members ranging from the liberal left, to the middle, and the conservative right.

KCRW’s To The Point – A 1 hr news program that covers the week’s most important topics and interviews a range of guests from all sides of the spectrum

NPR: Planet Money – A fun podcast that puts some of the more confusing topics of the changing global economy into layman’s terms

This American Life – Fun, short fiction pieces revolving around the American lifestyle and stories of everyday people.

For those of you not familiar with the world of podcasts, go to the iTunes store and browse the collection. I recommend subscribing to a few and changing the settings to update them daily.

1. The C.I.A. is running the drone program
2. It is being operated in a country where the U.S. has not waged war and civilians have been killed in some drone attacks.

The CIA’s general role is to collect intelligence and secrets from around the world to use them for the U.S.’s advantage. They have generally not used this intelligence to create targeted hit lists. It has never been a killing machine but it seems to be becoming one.  Should this be a concern?

The other issue is the fact that the U.S. is practicing questionable war ethics, by operating outside the war zone. Only 9% of Pakistani’s find the use of drones in their country favorable and most feel that the U.S. is infringing on their sovereignty. Not to mention that there have been many civilian casualties in the targeted killings. While there is currently no U.S. law legally banning the use of these drones, a lot of questions need to be raised:

What goes into the decision-making? Is there a balance between how many Al Qaeda and Taliban members are killed and how many innocent civilians are killed? What is the ratio that is considered a higher benefit than cost? Is it dangerous that we are making that decision?

This is a difficult situation because the use of drones also has a lot of positive aspects. It has helped the U.S. and Pakistan kill many Al Qaeda and Taliban, including a top Al Qaeda operations planner just recently. It is putting Al Qaeda on the defensive. However, even though this has tactical advantages, is it really the best for the U.S.-Pakistani relationship in the long run? Could the civilian deaths cause fallout and cause some civilians to join Al Qaeda or Taliban forces?

In order to establish a good long term-relationship, the U.S. should focus on winning the hearts and minds of the people. Is there a way to do this but still use the drones? Should the U.S. bring Pakistan in to share control of the drone use?

What if another country was operating drones to kill their enemies in the U.S. and your family was killed in the attack against a radical terrorist from the U.S.? Do you think this analogy is safe or flawed because of the extraordinary circumstances in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region?

I wanna party in Australia. By far the hardest partiers that I have met traveling have been Australians. They are crazy. Ever since Cut Copy paved the way in the mainstream, there have recently been a lot of electro-rock acts coming out of Australia and I’ve been digging it… a lot. Here are a few tracks to lead you into the weekend.

Miami Horror – Sometimes

Tim & Jean – Come Around

And lastly some classic Cut Copy for those of you that aren’t familiar

Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire

Started off with a divisive presidential election (bush vs. gore)

9/11 attacks – 3,000 Americans killed

Waged war in Afghanistan

Waged war in Iraq

2001 Anthrax attacks

Washington, D.C. snipers

Wall street scandals - Enron and Worldcom

Hurricane Katrina – killed 1500 and $100 billion in damages

Worst decade for stocks

Mean household income went down ($52,500 to $50,303)

Unemployment rate just reached 10.2%

Percentage of people below the poverty line increased (11.3% to 13.2%)

Percentage of Americans w/o health insurance increased (13.7% to 15.4%)

Record number of corporate bankruptcies

Price of oil more than tripled this decade

More mass and school shootings than any other decade (ex – Virginia Tech, Fort Hood)

Many heroes turned out to be flawed – steroids, political scandals, sex scandals

Financial meltdown – housing bubble, excessive borrowing, derivatives, and the epitome of greed Bernie Madoff

More large-scale terrorist bombings and attacks than any other decade

Looking back at it… what a shitty fucking decade. This doesn’t even cover everything;  while the article mostly focuses on bad events for Americans, other world events such as The War in Darfur have cost 300,000 lives and displaced over 2,000,000 people. Lets not forget about the 2004 Asian Tsunami that took 200,000 lives. The article goes on to suggest some reasons why such unfortunate events happened in this decade and I recommend you check it out  here. After all, aren’t we supposed to learn from mistakes in history so we don’t repeat them? Pretty crazy stuff to reflect on.

There has been a poll on the huffington post website of whether this person should be required to buy 2 seats on a plane. To my surprise, as of tonight,  only 56% have said “yes, its unfair but necessary” while 16% said “no, its discrimination” and the rest said “only in extreme cases.”

I think we should take all the people who said no and stick them next to a man this size on a 20 hour flight to southeast asia and see if they change their mind. Also, I found it nice that Huffington Post politely phrased an answer in their poll as “yes, its unfair but necessary.” How in the HELL is that unfair? What is unfair is for someone who is socially responsible about their health  having to pay $250 for a flight to have sweaty blubber spilling over the armrest into his lap.

So do you think it is unfair? Here is the poll for you.

However, one human right that prevails in most developed countries and is seen as a world norm is the freedom of religion. Recently in Switzerland, a right-wing party led the passage of a vote to ban any future construction of Islamic minarets. Minarets serve as an architectural feature on Islamic mosques where prayer is called five times a day. The justice minister of Switzerland has said that the vote is not a rejection of the Islamic religion or its culture but simply a reflection of the fear of the Swiss population.  As I’m sure you can imagine, many people around the world were outraged with the passage of this bill and the propaganda associated with it (see image above).

I personally cannot believe that the justice minister is that naive to make that comment. This ban is CLEARLY a sign to Muslim people that their religion is not welcome in Switzerland. Although I have my qualms with the basis of all religions and question how good they are for the world, especially in extremes, I think this is a direct violation of human rights.

Do the Swiss have a right to be afraid and have a point passing this bill? Although it is not true with all Muslims, there is much controversy regarding Islam and the treatment of women, homosexuals, and the fact that those who leave the Islamic religion can be legally executed in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and Yemen. Should we put similar bans on other religions that have controversy as well? Why should only Islam suffer? Would the world be better off without religion because of the extremes that can develop from it?

I ask these questions to spark your brain and I encourage you to share your comments.