Live Action

Somewhat darker issues, again. There was this gun shooting accident in Germany, when this boy called Kretschmer entered his former school and did some target practice with papa’s Beretta, then tried to get away from police. 16 killed (not all from school), several wounded. I’m sure you heard about it. If not, here is the BBC article from March 11 (with a nice map at the end), here is another from The Sun a day later (this one is more detailed), and another one from Wall Street Journal.

Several possible causes were listed, like: depression, troubled school life, unlocked guns at home, and violent video games of course. It is always the violent video games. Not the school, not the family, it’s the video games. This forum has some interesting posts, regarding the article in The Sun about him having been a CS player. I always find it funny how gamers react to such a statement.

What do you think? Who is to blame for such accidents? Friends, parents, school counselor, the psychiatrist, police, violent video games? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

“The long night had come again.”

Okay, if I had known about this, I would have posted this last week. Partly my fault, but anyway. It started in 2007, in Sydney. In 2008 it went global. Yesterday, it happened again. Exactly at 21:30 GMT+1, major cities all over the globe turned off the light. The purpose? Save electricity, save resources. This showed that we can still do nicely with candles and torches. See two videos about the event below.

This video was the “official trailer” of the whole thing:

And this is a peek of what happened yesterday:

Here is the website.
My guess is that the event will be back next year, so be prepared.

(The quote in the title is from Asimov's novel Nightfall.)

... are made of steel.

Oil will not last forever—that’s a fact everyone knows. So what can make the cars run instead of that? Well, there are two options: electricity and natural-gas. In the 79th International Motor Show at Geneva, there were examples for both.

My personal favorite is the Dodge Circuit EV; even journalists were given one of these to try out for three days (check this link for details). Using electric motor only, these cars have no CO2 emission at all. They are a little expensive to buy, but there is no added cost of refueling. Here is a list of electric cars that will be or already are available for purchase.

The other group was the natural-gas power. This is similar to gasoline, but first, it is 20-30% cheaper. Second, it has a negligible CO2 emission that has absolutely no effect on the climate. There are already a growing number of these in Switzerland; you can read more about these here.

I can only hope that the change from gasoline to alternative fuel will take place in my life.

Sweet dreams...

This week’s (and maybe next week’s as well) topic is global warming. However, I chose not to write about the process itself, but things that are just slightly related to it. For example, electric cars would be a great help in reducing the amount if CO2 in the air.

Electric cars are a bit more expensive than other types, but their maintenance is way cheaper. Logic says that these types of vehicles will soon dominate the roads of the world. However, the world does not revolve around logic. Check out this trailer first, and then think about it. Is it really the oil companies interest to reduce these cars’ propaganda? Logic says yes, but is it really possible that humans are so greedy in the xxi century? Is it a clever thing to put material wealth in the present above the future of our planet and the future of mankind?

…will ever come to an end?

The war is still ongoing in Gaza. People, however, have hope. They believe that this all will end, and the reconstruction can begin soon. How soon? No one can tell. This article informs about a marriage that was held in a refugee camp in a northern town. The newly wed couple hopes that they won’t have to live in a tent for long.

The reconstruction would cost at least about 2 billion dollars. Although several international bodies and organizations offered aid, I think it is very early to speak of that. The occupation has been going on for years now; it won’t all end by tomorrow, or by next week, or even by next year. Imo first the United States has to stop aiding Israel. A little bit of more pressure is needed from the part of the EU, I think. This could be the beginning. Then the political opinions should meet on a common ground, making the peace negotiations possible. Another interesting article, an op-ed, about this last one here.

If any of you want to follow the events, or just want to learn more about the present situation of the middle-east, here are some links:

http://wall-fal.blogspot.com/
http://www.ilovepalestine.com/
http://electronicintifada.net/

All the bad things...

I was searching the web for a convenient topic to start with, when I found something about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian war. This site contains all the major news from the site of the Electronic Intifada, a non-profit, “independent online publication which covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective” – according to Wikipedia.

Anyway, what caught my attention is that a journalist of theirs is missing. To be more accurate, Philip Rizk (picture)  was kidnapped. He was taking part in a solidarity march for the people of Gaza. He was taken by Egyptian security agents, and no one saw him since then. This happened on 6th February. Here is the article.

The question is, why did this happen? What was Rizk doing that made him a target for the Egyptian authorities? And why did the Egyptians care? What do you think? From a journalistic point of view, isn’t this a bit too much? Is this the xxi. century for you?

Welcome to the Future

I just finished reading Aldous Huxley’s incredible book, the Brave New World. If you haven’t read it yet, then do it ASAP. On the back of the cover it says: “The greatest novel of the future ever written.” I can only agree with that. Anyway, after I read it, it made me wonder. No, not about what the future will be. I mean I have read Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke (planning to read Orwell’s 1984 next); I have seen countless other sci-fi movies and all types of series as well. No, this blog is still not about the future. It is in the future. The book made me realize that the future is actually right now. This is the magical 21st century, so to say, the beginning of the future that was feared by the great intellectuals of the previous centuries (all right, this might be a little exaggeration). This is our Brave New World and we are living in it. But have you ever looked around? Have you ever noticed what world this is what most people claim to be the future?