No posts for a few days - explanation.

I have an issue with my jump drive, and all of the files I had for global issues and one other class seem to have been deleted. All my other files are fine. I have no explanation for this, and I do have some computer knowledge. The last backup I made doesn't have thees files in it, because it was just before the start of this semester. Oh well. You will see some more posts in a few days. Sorry about that.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seeks US visa ahead of nuclear meet

The Iranian president has applied for a visa to the US, most likely to be there when the nuclear meet takes place (Iran was not invited). The countries of the world are considering sanctions unless Iran halt uranium enrichment, which is what they need to do to build a nuclear weapon. I think that Iran should be allowed to attend, and there is no reason to deny the visa, I am sure that Ahmadinejad has the money to stay in the country.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

US government approves first offshore wind farm

The US gov’t has approved the first offshore wind farm – in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The wind farm is going to be constructed soon, and provide power three quarters of nearby Cape Cod, which has 225,000 residents. 130 wind-powered turbines will be put up, and operational, by 2012. I think that this is a great thing. I can’t believe how long it took them go and harness the winds of the ocean, which are not obstructed by any buildings. The only problem that I can see is that the turbines would have to be stronger than normal, to put up with the stress of the ocean waters.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Sony to stop selling floppy disks from 2011

Sony has announced that it will discontinue the floppy disk. It has been in use since the early 70’s, and can only hold 1.44mb of data. They say that there is too much competition from other “storage media”. You can get a USB stick that holds 8BG of data for around $25, or less on sale. Floppy disks come in packs of 10, costing around $10. 25 disks, which would be the same price as a USB stick, would hold only 36mb of data, not to mention take up more physical space. They are useless in my opinion, and out of 6 computers in my house, only one can even read them. I don't think you can buy a new computer that does, and forget a laptop that can do this.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

President Omar al-Bashir declared winner of Sudan poll

In the most recent Sudan poll, seen as being a key one, Omar al-Bashir was declared the winner. This person is still being charged for war crimes in Darfur. This was the first multi-party election the country has had in almost a decade and a half. I think that someone under investigation for war crimes, or someone being charge with them, should not be able to run in any election. As well, considering this was held in a far periphery country, the chance of corruption is high.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens

A new idea has been raised by Stephen Hawking about aliens. He says that it will be like the situation with the natives when Columbus discovered America. He says that we should avoid making contact because of this reason. I think that this is an interesting view point, and does make sense when compared to the native situation. I am not going to go as far to say I agree, but I will acknowledge the fact that it makes sense and could be the case.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Indonesia hosts world's biggest geothermal energy forum

Indonesia is hosting the world’s largest conference for geothermal energy, ever. They will talk about how this technology can be used effectively. This type of energy takes the heat of the earth and uses it to heat water into steam, which turns turbines to create power. I think it’s a great idea – because the earth will always have heat below the surface and we will always be able to use it, unlike other energy sources like oil.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Volcanic ash spreads more travel misery across Europe

This story, or some story related to it, is on 5 of the top 7 most read on the BBC website as of this writing. Basically the volcano in Iceland that threw ash everywhere is threatening the air travel accords most of Europe, because the planes can’t land though it. The disruption in air travel is being said to be greater than 9/11. This is a major story right now, so I thought I would talk about it. Saying that the disruption to air travel is greater than 9/11 is a strong comment to make, so the situation is probably bad. I do not plan on doing travel in the near future, so this doesn’t affect me but however – business people and politicians are probably wondering what they are going to do about this.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Iran leader Khamenei brands US 'nuclear criminal'

Iran is calling the US a nuclear criminal, as well as going as far to say that nuclear weapons are banned by religion. Iran says that an independent body should be set up to organize the disarmament of all nuclear weapons. Iran even said that they see the US as a threat to use nuclear weapons against them. I think that claim is outrageous. The US is not stupid enough to just fire weapons of mass destruction into a country for no reason. The only time, in my opinion, that the US would use such weapons would be if they were fired upon first.


Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

South Korea Starcraft gamers accused of match rigging

Starcraft, a game developed by Blizzard (makers of World of Warcraft) have been accused of taking bribes by gambling websites to fix the online matches. This game is very popular in South Korea, with about 70% of the online gaming community playing it. I think that this is silly. People shouldn’t be betting on online games that are easy to fix. That would be like betting on wrestling.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Toyota is recalling another 600,000 vehicles in US

Toyota is recalling another 600,000 vehicles, this time minivans. The problem this time is “corrosion”, and affects Siennas made between 1998 and 2010. This is another set of recalls that Toyota has made in recent months. I think that its better that Toyota does recalls than not, but at the same time they should not have taken 12 years to notice this issue. They will probably face lawsuits from this.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Air crash's high impact on Polish politics

Poland is trying to figure out how to handle the situation of not having all the government officials that were killed in the air crash recently. The most obvious thing to do is to push the elections from October to June, says the article. In my opinion this shouldn’t even be an issue, like I said earlier, but moving along, I think having an election soon is the way to go. June is a bit away, but at the same time, you have to think about the fact that it takes time to setup an election. Poland has an acting government, and they are not in civil war, so I think they will be okay.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Facebook urged to add panic button at meeting with Ceop

A British Child protection agency is urging Facebook to install ‘panic buttons’ on its site to protect children from online predators. Facebook says it takes the recent issue of a teenager being killed by someone she met on Facebook seriously. In my opinion, Facebook should have some features, but at the same time, the site doesn’t need to hold your hand. If you want to be using social networking websites, then you have to be somewhat responsible. Don’t talk to people you don’t know, and don’t meet strangers alone. It’s simple, really. I take the issue seriously also, but however It’s not fair to blame facebook.


Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

US First Lady Michelle Obama makes surprise Haiti visit

Michelle Obama, the first lady of the US, is making a surprise visit to Haiti and will visit Port-au-Prince’s camps that were set up for the people who need them. It is her visit out of the US without her husband since he took office in 2009. I think that this was a good thing, but however now that it’s out in the open it’s not much of a surprise. At the same time, waiting to announce it was a good idea to keep her safe. I view this as a nice gesture, and if I was the first lady, I would also bring some food and/or supplies to hand out to random people on the street. The purpose of that being to gain confidence in the local people.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Could terrorists get hold of a nuclear bomb?

An article was posted talking about the chance that a terrorist could get a hold of a nuclear weapon. The chance is small, the article reports, but is there. I agree completely. I think that the chance that they actually go and get one is very low, but however terrorists have a lot of money and I find it hard to believe that they have never tried to buy one, or try to make one even with what would most likely be stolen uranium.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Poland to review travel rules after deadly air crash

Poland is saying that they will change traveling rules, after a crash has caused the death of a lot of high-ranking officials, including the president. How did Poland allow this to happen in the first place? I think that it’s their own fault for not being smart. This sounds hostile, but I want to express my opinion that letting all these people travel together was a silly move.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Kyrgyzstan in crisis as clashes escalate

40 people have been killed in protests and the government in Kyrgyzstan is losing control. The main protest issue seems to be rising prices, as well as increasing corruption in the government.

I believe this country is a former soviet republic, and the stability in these countries is not the best to begin with. However, I don't think that it's a major issue. I think that it will last a week, or perhaps a month, but it will eventually settle back down. If it gets too out of hand, I would guess that Russia would move troops to keep the peace.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Kenya ends trials of Somali pirates in its courts

Kenya says it will not try any more pirates because of the lack of support from other countries. According to Kenya, the international community had promised to help them out, but they have not done so. In my opinion, if Kenya really wanted to help get the pirates, then they would do so with or without help. They hold over 100 pirates, the article states, and If I were them I would be pushing them though the court system as fast as I could, not waiting around like this.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Greece raises 5bn euros from bond issue

This is the first post I am putting up here. It's not brand new but it's fairly recent.

Greece has raised 5bn Euros by releasing bonds. They sold both 10 year and 7 year bonds with 6.3% and 5.9% returns respectively. Greece in heavy financial trouble and this will help them get out of it. I think that this is a good way for Greece to raise some money, but however if the seven years are up and they are not out of trouble, they will owe their citizens billions of Euros. In the article it states that Greece needs to refinance 20bn of its debt before the end of may, and this is a step in the right direction.

Original Article is from the BBC and can be found here.

Opening Post

Hey there everyone! Today (April 3rd, 2010) I am starting a new blog, inspired by a global issues course that I am taking. You might notice that the date says 2015. That is to "pin" this post to the top. If you know of a better way to do this let me know. Anyways... In this class, we are supposed to find an article for every day of class, and summarize and respond to it. We pass them in in groups of ten, so every two weeks (14 days minus 4 weekend days = 10).

So basically, this blog is going to be me posting the "article responses", plus a few exclusives on here if I feel like it. So that's it, as soon as I am done posting this and fixing the layout of my blog I will throw on one of my responses.

I will also be posting a few of them on Xomba, but however I will post them here first, at least a few days before. Xomba is another site I use to get more exposure for my stuff (I have been posting on that site for just over two years now). It is a pretty good site in my opinion, and worth using if you are a fellow blogger.

So. I am still playing with the colors and layout, and stuff like this. But I am pretty sure I am going to stay with the setup of have 2 posts on the main page. One being this post, and one being the most recent article. To see past articles, you need to scroll down a bit and look to the left, and you will see "Archive". They are all going to be findable there. If you are bored, you can feed the fish at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for reading this, have a nice day.