I Don't Like Coffee

On Nico’s Media Blog, he discussed a post about bio-fuel being made from coffee that he found on “The Environmental Blog”. As Nico explains, this bio-fuel is safer for the environment and it is even a stable efficient fuel. It all sounds nice, but it isn’t all that simple, and Nico definitely fell for it. The writer of “The Environmental Blog” failed to address some important issues.

First of all, 16 billion pounds of coffee is a lot, but not enough especially if we plan on still drinking coffee. Secondly, it is too expensive of a process right now, don’t we want the price of gas to go down? Also, isn’t most coffee produced throughout most of the world made outside of the country, especially in South America? I can’t see this helping the American economy much at all, and it would only raise the price of living. Not to mention, I really don’t want to smell coffee every time I drive.

Its Just Fantasy

Hugh Hefner’s life is every man’s dream, three beautiful blondes and a ton of money. What better way to exploit this than make it into a show. “Girls Next Door” is an extremely entertaining show where cameras follow Hefner’s girlfriends as the go through their relaxed life, where they only do what they want to do. It really is entertaining, but mostly because those girls are extremely beautiful, and not to mention a few of their activities are interesting. Of course, you also see the usual dirt that goes on in these “reality” shows. The girls complain about each other, and the one, Holly, definitely comes off as a cocky, neurotic girlfriend.

There is a problem with this show, and a big one. I would never let my younger sister watch it. This show presents a false reality, that girls can get by in life due solely to their looks, I mean lets face it those girls have no real personality. They show younger girls that if they have big enough boobs and a skinny stomach that they don’t have to work, or even think, and can spend all day doing whatever they want. Now, I know that people need to think for themselves and in no way do I think the government or anyone should censor this show. I also don’t think girls shouldn’t be allowed to watch it, but not when there young, and not without being taught that this show is a fantasy. The guys know it, so should the girls. In the end, it all comes down to parents.

Yaz

If you haven’t seen the recent Yaz birth control commercials, the ones where they spend the whole commercial listing all the negative benefits of Yaz, than you haven’t watched enough television. These commercials are a joke, or at least they are to the viewer. Why is it that they are making commercials that seem to list only negative aspects of their product? Because the FDA “asked” them to after they released a commercial that made Yaz seem to be to perfect.



Now if you actually watch the commercial, it really isn’t that bad. First of all, it’s an advertisement, so of course the company is going to want to make their product seem like it’s the best. That’s what a competitive market does. The commercial does what is required in that it states the possibility of negative health effects. Honestly, it isn’t that much different from any other birth control commercial. Should the one where the girl leaves the group of boring swimmers to become a free-willed beauty have been taken down to?

The whole situation is ridiculous, if you ask me this is the political conservatives trying to bring down the birth control industry by controlling what commercials they can make.

Good Night and Good Luck

An exciting, and interesting movie that everyone should check out is “Good Night and Good Luck”, directed by George Clooney. In this movie based on a true story, a famous reporter, Edward Murrow, takes on the legendary McCarthy and his campaign against communists. Eventually, Murrow’s bold, and dangerous, actions lead to the downfall of McCarthy, but angers the owner of the television station. This causes Murrow’s program to lose much of its advertising and has him switched to a non-primetime slot.

This shows the viewer the truth of media, that it’s a business ran by politics. Murrow’s campaign was a success, it brought down McCarthy and it received many callers during the program. Why did he lose his advertising than? Because, big businesses did not want to support a person that could possibly connect them to less popular political stances, such as communism. Murrow was a risk, he took on McCarthy successfully, but what other stances would he take? Could the advertisers risk such a thing happening again, just this time without success? No, they preferred to remove support, causing his show, a true public service show, to almost become cancelled.

To me, this sounds a lot like the Michael Phelps situation. He lost his advertisers because they didn’t want to be seen supporting a pothead, despite his success and his smoking having little to do with their products.

Justifiably Angry Feminists

I just read a post from the feminist blog called Feministing, and found that I almost completely agree with the writer. In the post, she discusses how she heard a man and a woman publically discussing another woman’s sexual promiscuity and calling her a slut. The post addresses the topic of the double standards that have been a societal problem for generations. Men can do whatever they want, but if a woman does the same thing she is deemed a slut. Like the writer, I see no excuse for this.

A PERSON should not be humiliated or hated for their sexual desires. We are all human, we all have sexual desires. I am actually abstinent, yet I have difficulty keeping it sometimes, and I never judge others for their sexual actions. I may not agree with them, but it’s their own decision which only should affect them.

Usually extreme feminists can get on my nerves, but the bloggers at Feministing don’t. The post I wrote about, and others that I read all speak wisely, even if some of it could be considered extreme. A person could learn from such blogs, and become more open-minded.

Marijuana Media

G4TV’s target audience is supposed to be “geeks”, in the beginning of the stations history all its shows were dedicated to video games, computers and other advanced technology that a non-geek could never understand. Since than, it has changed a lot and became more mainstream with shows like Cops and movies. Recently though, they did a whole lineup dedicated to marijuana smoking. This special included a discussion on legalization, the stoner classic Half Baked, and the television premiere of Super High Me. Those two movies have actually been playing almost non-stop for the last two weeks. On the same day, a smoking holiday called on 4/20, Comedy Central played several Cheech and Chong movies. Now these stations are meant for entertainment solely, and perhaps they recognize that a large amount of their audience may be potheads.

Yet, even in other forms of media, pot has managed to wedge itself in there. News specials have been done on multiple networks where they have debated both medical and recreational usage of marijuana. President Obama has made statements saying that dispensaries in California should not be the targets of federal attacks. In an online forum where questions for Obama were voted upon, issues of marijuana received a substantial (3.5 million) vote.

With the media spotlight on marijuana it feels as if some form of legalization is going to occur. In New Jersey, a bill has already been approved by the house, and has received support of the governor. As stated earlier, Obama wants to end DEA raids. Everywhere you go, people are talking about it, and if enough people are pressuring the government to address it something may happen.

Environmentalists...

I happen to be a somewhat conservative person, and when discussing the environment I usually dismiss the issue as unimportant. Its not that it isn’t important so much as not as big an issue as the liberals make it out to be. However, I do believe that if there is something we can do to make the world a better place, even a little bit, and so long as it does not get in the way of people’s individual rights or waste taxpayers money, I see no reason why we shouldn’t do it.

On the environmentalist blog, Unearthed, I actually found a post by Trip Van Noppen to be very informative and interesting. Reading his article I learned that Black Carbon is a dangerous problem that is affecting people in the present, not the distant future. I also learned that there are those in power throughout the world that are trying to change things. All in all, the post was very interesting, but I disagree that politicians should be making any decisions on it. First of all, while any death is unfortunate, 1.6 million deaths a year possibly caused by black carbon just is not enough considering the population of the world. Also, if carbon dioxide is the main issue, why should we waste millions of dollars stopping black carbon so that we can just spend more trying to stop carbon dioxide emissions? Environmentalists should stop trying to waste our money on what they see as problems. If they want to fix it they can do it themselves, but don’t force others to change according to your beliefs.