Environmentalists wary about harm to birds from Texas oil spill

"Environmentalists wary about harm to birds from Texas oil spill"
by Michael Muskal

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-oil-spill-birds-20140327,0,1508566.story#ixzz2xVW9tHlU

There was a serious oil spill in the Houston Ship Channel. A ship crashed into a oil carrying vessel, resulting in gallons upon gallons and barrels upon barrels spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and having major environmental issues and impacts. Environmental disasters are especially hard to manage, because humans cause an event that nature itself cannot fix. A variety of species of birds were oiled up because of the oil spill near Houston. 168,000 gallons of oil mixing in with sea is not an easy mess to clean up. But it puts another burden on authorities because they need to now find birds smothered in oil. These birds are flying from place to place covered in oil and spreading the effects of the oil spill throughout the region. Officials, even the Coast Guard, have teamed up to find the birds and provide fast and effective care and treatment. Due to the fact that these birds are mobile and fly even to different regions, finding them quickly is imperative for their lives and to keep the balance of nature. Animals that prey on these some 200 birds are going to die because they are unknowingly consuming oil. The oil might never work its way into the food chain of the region, but there is still the chance.

Obama considers using Military action on Congress

http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-not-ruling-out-us-military-action-in-congres,34946/?ref=auto

With most eyes recently on Crimea, the Middle East, and other unstable regions, the Obama administration has kept a watchful eye on Congress. The Administration recently announced that it will not hesitate to use military action to stabilize the situation in Congress. Sending in troops is the last but very possible resort, for Obama. Military officials from the Pentagon also commented, saying if such an attack were to be launched there would be the sufficient firepower from the ground and air would be present in a timely manner.

Obviously, the article from the Onion and the previous thoughts typed by the author of this blog post are satirical. This article in a very funny way attacks the polarized Congress, how Congress is so separated and cannot get anything done that the government must resort to extreme actions. Right-wing extremists, idealistic Democrats, poor leadership, and just stupidity and stubbornness are all part of the reason Congress is in such a disappointing situation. Just like Congress only focuses on the side that looks best, the media does so as well. With liberal media like MSNBC and conservative media like FOX News,  satirical media has no choice to pick a side. But satire has a profound effect, it gets the audience to think about the severity or importance of an event, and it has done no different in this case.

when Kanye interrupted Beyonce, Colbert had something to say

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/247478/september-14-2009/kanye-west-interrupts-taylor-swift-at-the-vmas

Kanye West infamously interrupted Taylor Swift at the 2009 Video Music Awards, an event that caused a media frenzy. Youth from across the United States reveled at West's courage and sympathized for Taylor and all parties agreed that Beyonce "deserved it." The ingenious Stephen Colbert satired this phenomenon during his own show. By clicking the link at the beginning of this blog post, one will enjoy Stephen's shift of focus from the irrelevant and embarrassing attention the incident is getting to himself. By shifting focus to himself, he send out the message that people will follow and do whatever is popular. Most get distracted by celebrities' egos, and disregard and forget about important issues in the present. So why focus on artistically challenged musicians like West and Swift, when people could focus on Colbert. Satiring the people's attention on the wrong things and the celebrities' need for attention at the same time by boasting about himself is no easy feat, but Stephen Colbert does so with much success. This video clip is one that is based on useless fact and is funnier to Colbert Report fans (like the author of this blog post), but all in all it successfully satires the faults of celebrities, the public, and the media by showing all his viewers of how easily minds can be manipulated, while increasing his public image.

The Rise of the Euro

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304732804579424852686400812?mod=rss_world_markets&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304732804579424852686400812.html%3Fmod%3Drss_world_markets

The most common currency used by nations in the European Union is the "Euro." It is reported by Claire Connaghan of the Wall Street Journal that the Euro has hit a record high in the past two years. This strength in currency has many economic and political impacts. Economically, it gives monetary leeway for nations who use the Euro. It also gives the European Central Bank (where the Euro is governed and printed) no reason to alter its steady interest rate at a quarter of a percent, 0.25%. The Euro surpasses the United States dollar, the Japanese Yen, it is close to passing the English Pound Sterling, and "marches higher against" pretty much every other currency in the modern world. The Euro's most recent success is attributed to certain, calculated factors. The European Central Bank's President, Mario Draghi, said the European Central Bank does not plan on taking action to increase measures used to further fund the bank unless necessary. This and their reluctance to shift the interest rate increases the strength of the Euro by marginal yet critical numbers. An adverse effect of this phenomenon is deflation. The Euro has issues maintaining a healthy inflation rate, and is much below the ideal target point. All in all, one should expect a positive slope for the Euro.

The economy and Me

I am positive Dean Martin sang sway, an underlying reference was to the ups and downs of the economy. The economy's tides shift so fast even expert and focused economists cannot keep up. Many different factors of the economy affect my daily life. I am the proud son of parents who make their living off small businesses. The economy must have a positive return to the people. When people have money, businesses make money. When businesses make money, the economy grows and and thrives. Many different issues  arise because of this. Large retailers get in the way of small businesses. All these factors obviously affect my family's income. My family's income decides the type of food I eat, the car I can dive, the house I live in, and dictates most luxuries in my life. It is therefore imperative the strength of an economy to increase in order for the quality of many lives to become better. Economic reactions such as high interest rates, Obamacare (medical uniform business),  and the media telling people not to spend clearly affects me. My economic  capabilities are not only affected by my  family's  incomes, but also the economic conditions of everyone else.

WhatsApp impact

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-21/wireless-carriers-shrug-off-whatsapps-33-billion-impact#r=rss

The use of "WhatsApp" has only grown. WhatsApp is a smartphone application that is free, and costs ninety nine cents after one year of use, and allows for its users to text (sms) to others. This application will do to texting what Skype did to the video-messaging world. Although the consumers are much more happy, and get to talk more with more people, many telephone companies are hurt. According to this article, the application cost carriers around thirty three billion dollars in losses just this past year. It is also estimated that by 2016 the overall "damage" will succumb to fifty four billion dollars in losses. This application's effect and more importantly power is what prompted Facebook to acquire it for nineteen billion dollars. The stock market was much affected by this trade. On that day, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Vodaphone, Twitter, and Blackberry both had a rise in shares and a rise in trading. Vodaphone even completed the sale of its Verizon stock (forty five percent of the company) on February twenty one. No one knows the future of our communication platform, but it is clear WhatsApp is onto something, but not long before Facebook or other powerful company buy them off.

Nature

Yesterday, (Saturday, February 24, 2014) I had the pleasure of going on a little hike by myself. At Brand Park, the trails are easy, making it preferable to look at the surrounding nature. The spot I decided to sit down at was an oasis type spot surrounded by plush greenery and trees from above. When I sat down, I smelled a sour yet natural stench coming from the wall of green in front of me. The dampness of the leaves was very apparent. The swaying of the trees along with the swish ans swosh it made was very relaxing. There was no food to taste, nor did the floor seem appetizing. I started thinking about the purity of nature, of how it is so different in every corner of the world, yet each has its own beauty. I sometimes forget to apply this realization to people around me, and to the people I meet, because I allow the negative to cloud the positive. The fact that people might have had trouble not checking their phones is also troubling, because they check their phones everyday, and yet they do not get to enjoy nature once (due to the fact they were checking their phone).