Coal Fueled Power Plant To Bury Carbon Dioxide into the Earth

A coal- feuled power plant in West Virgina, Mountaineer, is the world's first to attemp to store carbon dioxide underground rather than spewing it out into the atmosphere. The goal is that the gas will remain deep underground for centuries rather than toxify the air. Countries such as China and India, with similar pollution problems, have been visiting the plant recently. Instead of buidling new, cleaner plants, industry experts claim it is more "feasible" to just update them. Enviormentalist experts who oppose using coal as feul claim that storing it underground could just be trading one set of problems, global warming and air pollution, for another, the poisioning of water supplies. Should the two mix, they could seep through the ground and spill poisionous materials on the earth. Many eviormentalists also complain that this is an attempt for big corporations making money off of coal to further prolong the switch to cleaner feuls, such as solar and wind power. Michael Morris, chairman of American Electric Power, even admitted that he believes the use of coal will be around for years to come and that "retrofitting" will be nessecary. Furthermore, if Congress should pass a law withing the next few years requiring more cutbacks on emissions, coal companies could store up to 90 percent of their carbon dioxide undergroud. Therefore, if Mountaineer and other local power plants can make this new method cost-effective, it will have a huge impact on the coal industry, further delaying and hindering the much needed transition to clean energy.
I believe that this method is a cop-out for greedy companies and people like Morris to keep making money at the Earth's expense. This is not some miracle way to stop emissions and still be dependent on coal; at best, it is just going to create more enviormental issues that our government will continue to not deal with. It is long overdue for the entire elimination of coals and fossil feuls and the introduction of only clean powers and feuls for useage. The techonology to make this happen is available, and many natural oils can be made into gas for cars. The only thing standing in the way is the greedy fat cat corporations in kahoots with politicans and lobbyists; these people only care about making money, no matter what the ulitmate cost is. I believe that within our lifetime, some natural castrophe will occur, and the enviromentalists, such as Al Gore, will get to say 'I told you so' to all the conservative politicans whose only concern was making money at the expense of the Earth and the American people.
Here is the link for the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/science/earth/22coal.html?em

President Obama Defends His Health Care Plan

Our president came on television today to defend his health care reform and tried to quell fears that the government would be taking over health care entirely. Appearing on five television stations, that president expressed the difficulties of reforming our health care system, adding also that he "doesn't count" on much help from the Republicians. He went on to say that it wasn't a radical plan, but rather a few changes to what the country acknowledges as a social obstacle. Some critics claim that Obama's new health care plan would increase Medicare costs and taxes for the middle class, something which Obama promised wouldn't happed; Obama refuted this claim, stating that if nothing was done about the health care in the United States, the middle clas would be worse off with rising medical costs. Although Obama favors incoporating a public insurance option, or government regulated health care, he said it was not the major part of the bill. He urged his party to unify and focus on the bigger and broader issues of the health care reform. To no surprise, Obama avoided Fox News Network, known for their conservative commentators who are very critical of him and his party. Lastly, he also addressed the issue of the war, not stating whether or not he was going to send more troops overseas, but stressed that a new, better strategy had to be formulated before any other desicions are made regarding the troops.
I believe Obama is doing the best he can and is taking on a huge issue that no one will completely agree on. However, I do think it is important for him to have some bipartisan support on this health reform plan, as this is an issue that affects everyone, not just Democrats. I think that it is good we are moving towards a government run health care system, because private companies need some competition or they will continue to take advantage of the American people. Many other developed nations have public health care systems; perhaps if we study the models of other countries, we can take what parts would work for our country and leave out what wouldn't. We need a unique, flexible and fair health care program to fit a unique and evolving country, and I believe we are slowly but surely on our way there.
Here is the article link :http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/health/policy/21obama.html?_r=1&hp

Paul Steinmetz, PR Director for WCSU

Paul Steinmetz, director for public relations at Western CT State University, discovered his love of writing when he took a newspaper writing class at his local California community college. It lead him to graduate from San Francisco State University, working in local papers and covering exciting stories such as the Black Panthers Huey Newton trial. However, he wanted to branch out, and he did; just for the sake of sending it, he gave in an application at the Danbury News Times all the way across the country, and to his surprise, was hired. He ended up working at the Times for 24 years, becoming the managing editor for his last ten. When he was unexpectedly fired three years ago , he came to WCSU and was hired as the school's public relations director, promoting the university, controlling the image of the school, staging campus events, and calling local media stations with press releases.

He discussed the turmoil in the newspaper industry, and the major problem behind it; the business model for the typical newspaper was completely outdated. Many newspapers got up to 30 percent profit from major ads by car dealers, department stores, and lots of smaller ads. However, with the popularity of the internet rapidly rising, many of these companies have websites of their own, eliminating the dependancy on newspapers to get the word out about their products. This equals a huge loss in revenue for the newspaper industry, and many papers across the country have been forced to shut down entirely, and almost all have cut their staff members significantly. He further added that in the next 10 to 15 years, the newspaper industry will be entirely unrecognizable, with the internet take over the functions of print papers.

Most newspaper companies, and PR positions as well, Steinmetz added, are looking for people with online experience. A good way to get said experience, according to him, was by creating a blog. A blog, as are social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, is a good way to market yourself and get people interested in what you have to say. The world is changing before our eyes, and in the future, its going to be all about the internet, so getting familiarized with it is crucial in order to obtain employment.

"The Universe" T.V. Show

"The Universe" is a television program on the History Channel that discusses all the different aspects about the universe, from the fragility of life on Earth, to the workings of the Milky Way, and even parallel universes. One important topic it discusses the extraordinary power of the sun, and how at any moment it can destroy all life by many ways such as solar flares, which are random bursts of extremely hot liquid lava expelling outwards from the sun's surface; the scary thing is, these occurances are unpredictable and can happen at any moment. Another phenomenon it discusses as far as the Earth's fragile state is the devasting effects of a meteor; however, these can be tracked and diverted in order to not hit Earth's surface. Many supersitious people think a meteor is going to destroy Earth on the supposed Armegeddon, Decemeber 2012. Furthermore, "The Universe" talks about the interesting aspects, conditions, and comparisions and contrasts between other planets verses our own, such as Mars, Jupiter and Venus. But my favorite segement of this awesome show was the one which discussed the possibilities of parallel universes, taychon particles, and string theory. The physicists on the show make a case for parallel universes by looking at certain theories which state certain types of particles can, and even must, be in the different places at the same time. Therefore, since everything is made up of particles, in another time and space everyone exists somewhere other than this time and space, and may even exsist in numerous different times and spaces. Taychon particles, which are theortical particles that at minimum travel at the speed of light, if harnessed, could one day be used for rapid travel and exploration across the universe, and maybe into other universes as well. Also, the show discusses aspects of string theory, which explains how our universe is layered between other universes, and disscusses possible ways of using shortcuts to travel to other universes by looking at certain Einstien theories. Lastly, it is important to remember that alot of these things discussed on "The Universe", escpecially the last three topics mentioned, are all theoritical and cannot be 'proven' per se. However, they, and all the other things discussed, are all very fascinating and informative topics, which is why I think everyone should watch this show.

You can either tune in on Tuesdays at 9 on the History Channel, or watch all the episodes online at http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=54036.

Eugene Driscoll's Independent News Site

Eugene Driscoll is editor of Valley Independent Sentinel, a non-profit news source covering the Naugatuck Valley area in Connecticut, which includes the towns of Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, and Shelton. This forward-thinking journalist team, which includes Driscoll, a field reporter, and about 6 freelance writers, provides the Valley with an alternate, intimate, and community-based source for everything that is currently happening in these towns. Everything from drive by shootings in Derby to civil war re-enactments in Shelton is featured on the site. The site relies on a police scanner, local sources, government meetings, and daily observations to keep people in the Valley area knowledgeable on what is going on in their area.

Driscoll, who started out working in the Hartford Courant at a desk job, had the desire to break out from a tedious workspace and jump into what he calls "the chase for information". Three months ago, he was hired to help run this small online news source, doing everything from writing and editing stories of his choosing to taking out the garbage at the end of the week. The editor, who lives in Derby, uses local sources and citizen journalism to his advantage. However, the Valley Independent Sentinel is right up there with all the daily papers as far as local breaking news; his field reporter will often have a live stream at the scene of an event, such as a fire, using a flip camera and other such devices to make it accessible for subscribers to the site. Like other innovative news papers, Driscoll and his team use modern technologies to their benefit, making their reporting competitive and compelling.

But not just anyone can comment on the issues and stories on the site; Driscoll, a journalist not concerned with using ignorant comments as a way to get hits on the new site's page, has made it so only subscribers can comment on the stories, and all comments are screened for obscenities. Because of his choice to be true to his work, he uses Facebook, Twitter, and the old fashion way, by word of mouth, to get more hits and subscribers to the site.

Driscoll finds that the last method has created a sense of community and appreciation between himself, his news site and the people who live in the Valley. However, he expresses fears that the public has become apathetic to what is going on in the world, and fears for the press's life in the future. But he's a journalist in it for the love of reporting, of chasing information, and for forging a sense of community where he lives and works. Hopefully, those qualities are the future of the press and of journalism.

The link for this site is valleyindy.org

Same Sex Marriage Now Legal In Vermont

As of August 31st, gay marriage is now legal in the state of Vermont, according to an article by the New York Times. It is now one of five states who allows gay marriage, including Connecticut, Massechusetts, Iowa, and soon to be New Hampshire, whose law will take effect starting in 2010 (Assoicated Press). Recently the huge upset in California, which voted in Propostion 8, a ban on gay marriage, was marked as a huge step back for the fight to let gays marry in America. However, the passing of gay marriage in Vermont, although it is a much smaller state, is one step forward in ending the treatment of gay people as second class citizens. Ironically, many other developed nations, such as Britian, Canada, and France, all allow gay marriage, and the ones that don't are typically not democratic or developed nations, such as areas of the Middle East. American is a strange case of a nation that has gotten more religious as it has developed, with the recent revival of the Born Again Christians, which is not the typical pattern for nations that have become more advanced. I believe this has directly impacted the holding back of gay marriage, as Chrsitian doctrine teaches that homosexuality is "evil" and "wrong". However, there is supposed to be a seperation of church and state in this country; therefore, I believe religion and political persons with religious agenda should stop interfering with the rights of gay people and treat them as first class citizens. It is time to put outdated, discrimantory, and foolish doctrines behind that teach certain people are bad just because of their sexuality. It is time to give gay people the rights they deserve as Americans and as human beings.
Here is the NYT article link:http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/01/us/AP-US-Gay-Marriage.html?_r=2&scp=6&sq=gay%20marriage&st=cse