new copy final essay

Looking back at the year we had and trying to understand what a good and meaningful life was, I feel that the only way a person can determine whether or not they are living a good and meaningful life truly depends on them. We cannot evaluate another person’s life and say yes their living a meaningful life or not. I think the only time one is truly living a good and meaningful life is when we are younger. I say this because when we are younger we are who we are 100%, we aren’t doing things to impress people, fit in, stay in shape physically, were just regular human beings enjoying life the way we should be. I think this is important because as we get older we begin to allow others to think for us or miss lead us to things - these others are who are involved in the advertisement of the media and pop culture. We see things that pop culture display and say we need etc, and changes who we are. They also put images of those who are on magazines who are betrayed to be either sexy, handsome, physically fit, acne free. Then the average person tends to alternate their views to become or live this fantasy life that they see celebrities and other rich people living. But they fail to realize that being themselves is the most genuine thing to do and not changing to become someone but maybe changing to better themselves and help them live a more meaningful life.

To me a good and meaningful life means enjoying every aspect of life, be aware or you’re mental and physically body. Also being connected with family and friends, it’s important to have a connection with your family because then you become aware of your personal values and morals. This is meaningful to me because you have a sense of where these values were derived from and determine whether they are good or not depending on my values now that I have grown older and can think of things for myself. Things that have stuck with me that my parents have taught me are to have good manors, be true to yourself, and do your best. Also learning from my mistakes and learning how to get through obstacles allow me to become more mature.

Living a good and meaningful life can mean eating healthy, being aware of your true feelings at all times, taking part in fun filled activities (sports, swimming, art, music etc.), being aware of your body, taking part in good causes, giving back to your community, things like that can allow you to have a good and meaningful life. I’m not saying a person should have to do all of these activities listed, but understanding the value of how it can help you is good as well. You don’t have to work out to be fit, you don’t have to be on a diet to eat healthy, but it’s the decisions you make that can help you enjoy food and not be over weight.

The new unit we have been discussing has been about the collapse soon to come. I think before this collapse arrives I want to have either achieved most goals in my life, over come fears, and be living a good and meaningful life. Although the majority of our society will be wiped away, I feel that accepting the situation is better rather than trying to avoid it or covering it. Because if we are able to accept it than just maybe we could be able to get through it, or create new ideas so that we can survive.

To finish this up in order to live a meaningful life I believe that a person needs to be willing to understand his or her errors in order to become a better personWhile being in this class it has opened my eyes to so many things. When I first took this class in 11th grade I thought this was some crazy stuff. But I learned to accept the things I learned and actually have grown to like it a lot. I can honestly say that besides gym class history class has been my favorite class. Writing this is meaningful because I can honestly say I want to pursuer philosophy classes in college since it actually interests me. I doubt I will get a steady job off of this so I’m not majoring in it. Life is meaningful depending on how you play things out. Do you want to do what you’re always told or do you want to learn new things take risks and think outside the box? I’d rather try and reach my dreams and goals than to end up doing some crumby job that gets me a lot of money that I don’t appreciate or makes me happy. Life is something that should be appreciated and not wasted we all are born, grow older, and eventually die don’t die without doing something meaningful with your life as long as it’s meaningful to you than you should be fine.

Final Assignment for my SOF career =(

Looking back at the year we had and trying to understand what a good and meaningful life was, I feel that the only way a person can determine wether or not they are living a good and meaningful life truely depends on them. We can not evaluate another persons life and say yes their living a meaningful life or not. I think the only time one is truely living a good and meaningful life is when we are younger. I say this because when we are younger we are who we are 100%, we arent doing things to impress people, fit in, stay in shape pyhsically, were just regular human beings enjoying life the way we should be. I think this is important because as we get older we begin to allow others to think for us or mis lead us to things - these others are who are invovled in the advertisement of the media and pop culture. We see things that pop culture display and say we need etc, and changes who we are. They also put images of those who are on magizanes who are betrayed to be either sexy, handsome, physically fit, acne free. Then the average person tends to alternate their views to become or live this fantasy life that they see celebrities and other rich people living. But they fail to realize that being themselves is the most genuine thing to do and not changing to become someone but maybe changing to better themself and help them live a more meaningful life.

Living a good and meaningful life can mean eating healthy, being aware of your true feelings at all times, taking part in fun filled activities (sports, swimming, art, music etc.), being aware of your body, taking part in good causes, giving back to your community, things like that can allow you to have a good and meaningful life. Im not saying a person should have to do all of these activities listed, but understanding the value of how it can help you is good as well. You dont have to work out to be fit, you dont have to be on a diet to eat healthy, but its the decisions you make that can help you enjoy food and not be over weight.

The new unit we have been discussing has been about the collapse soon to come. I think before this collapse arrives I want to have either achieved most goals in my life, over come fears, and be living a good and meaningful life. ALthough the majority of our society will be wiped away, I feel that accepting the sitiuation is better rather than trying to avoid it or covering it. Because if we are able to accept it than just maybe we could be able to get through it, or create new ideas so that we can survive.

Collapse Assignment 2

The way our society is leading towards, it looks as if the collapse we all know will be comming soon. From historical examples it says that "if 2005 was the year of global Peak Oil, worldwide oil production in the year 2030 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world’s population in 2030 will be both much larger (approximately twice) and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980." So shouldn't this mean that the civilization would be able to produce more oil to provide for the mass production of corporations? But the research says that the world will demand more oil than will be able to be produced.

" As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil dependant economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode." I feel if our society leads to a war against each other for the resources that other countries have, then this will be the true downfall of our society. Not having the oil or the proper amount isn't the biggest downfall but when our society begins to go against each other instead of helping and perserving the oil we have now. I feel that our government should be looking in to the future and how they can help either make more oil or save oil so that if the "crash" comes we can be prepared. In history Class today (6/11/09), I began to think about if it was possible for there to be some what of an alternative for this soon to be collapse. Seeing how we know that this collapse is coming, I feel that we should be more prepared for it. Since our oil is decreasing and its our main resource, I think that scientist should be searching and testing other materials that could be used to either preserve the oil amounts or become a new substance that the society can evovle or adapt to.


RESEARCH FROM MY OWN ARTICLE: Non-Renewable Resources ; Oil, Natural Gas, LPG
"There has been some headway in the last decade toward the use of renewable resources, such as solar and wind power, but Texas relies predominantly on non-renewable energy sources. Today, some energy analysts are calling natural gas the "prince of the hydrocarbons."* The clean-burning properties of natural gas are causing consumption to increase dramatically. Natural gas can be used to power cars and trucks, to generate electricity, and to heat and cool our homes and work places. Since 1992 natural gas has accounted for 25 percent of total energy consumption in the United States. The fuel can be used to power air conditioners and is gaining popularity in the transportation sector. Sixty-eight percent of the homes in Texas use natural gas. Compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) burn cleaner than gasoline or coal. Liquefied natural gas offers a fuel alternative to vehicle fleet owners who must comply with Clean Air Act regulations. Natural gas is also being used by more utilities for power generation.Most consumers know liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as butane or propane. These liquids are removed from oil and gas during the refining process.. A flexible fuel, LPG can be used for everything from running residential water heaters to powering farm tractors. Propane is second only to natural gas in terms of heat content. It is considered an alternative fuel because it burns cleaner than coal or gasoline. One-third of the nation's propane is produced in Texas."

link: http://www.texasep.org/html/nrg/nrg_4non.html

Collapse Assignment 1

Easter Island was once known for its riches of paradise. The Island was consumed with tropical fruits, delicious fish, several culture festivals and activities, and most important the abundance of trees that surrounded the Island. These beautiful things later on lead to famines, epidemics, civil war, slave raids and colonialism, and the crash of their ecosystem. Slave raiders struck Easter Island for several months, eventually capturing or killing around 1500 men and women, about half of the island's population. Some islanders managed to escape slavery, but brought back smallpox to the island which started the epidemic. This also decreased the population of the island not including the violent clan wars starting over the remaining newly available lands. These clan wars lead them to chopping down there islands trees, this became a competition of chopping trees to build statues (Moai). They did this to have this symbol of whos clan was most powerful.

This destroyed the culture because the trees was the islands main source of supply, it contributed to every aspect of the island inwhichh the more chopped trees the less supply of the island had to survive off of. This is an example of culture values colliding with environmental reality. This connects to our own environment with Easter Islands main resource being there trees, and our main resource being our oil. An economy grows by its constant growth of its main resource, meaning if something begins to decrease or decline its takes a toll on the society. In class we talked about the fact that inorder for things not to collapse work must be applied. The collapse of an economy is everything startes to exceed until it reaches nothing. Today, our economy is based on economic growth. If our oil begins to deminish, the economy will crash drastically.

New Draft of Food Final Assignment

In today’s society, several people have been consuming food products that have been either shipped or produced in factories. Meaning that the food products have lost its natural value. The majority of vegetables, fruits, and many other farm grown products have turned into fast produced products. When we eat we usually don't take the time out to think where our food came from, or even how it was made. We buy our meats and dairy products from supermarkets and companies. The meat and chicken come from animals who have been abused and tortured to gain weight faster, while the companies selling these products make more profit. That alone changes the value of our food, making the animals gain weight, this leads me believe that this isn’t healthy for them nor is it natural. Because the food industry and other major companies have gained so much power over the society and culture, they are able to manipulate how the animals are raised. The food industry and major companies managed to push out the original farms where the animals were treated fairly to make their factories where there is animal cruelty so that they can make their profits. That’s where our society is leading towards, treating animals bad just to make a quick buck and soon our own citizens.

In today’s culture, the society we live in is based on eating industrialized foods. The food that we are consuming is produced in factories in which the chemicals used are harmful to the animals. While watching the movie "Meatrix", it talked about how the dominant food industries were able take over small family farms which were growing their food in a healthy organic environment. The larger food companies are able to produce a larger variety of food products much faster than the smaller family farms, because the factories are able to use machines, which end up having the small farms shut down. The factories use several substances, chemicals and other hormones to enhance the animal’s growth speed. This allows them to produce more meat when they die which again means more money for the companies. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed steroid-like chemicals to increase their growth at a rapid pace that their weak chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals to fatten them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. The chemicals that are in these animals later on cause us to get diseases. Once an animal dies, example the cow, in some situations the dead cows blood is fed to a living cow. that increases the chances of us getting affecting.

As well as harming these animals the factories are harming our world with their pollution. In the video “VROOM” there was a scene that showed a huge field of crops that were getting harvested, after this scene a huge truck spraying pesticides and other harmful chemicals was shown. These chemicals that were sprayed killed the crops which made it easier for them to destroy them and use more machines to destroy our planet with all the fossil fuels being used. The example above shows how huge companies don’t care about nature they just care about the profit.


One thing that stood out to me the most was not only do these factories fatten
up their animals, they also take the sperm of their males and perform artificial insemination on their female animals. According to a video we watched in class, the farm workers would bring a male cow to a female cow and get it in heat. Once the male cow has produced sperm to have sex with the female cow the workers will take the male cow and stick a tube in their body that is able to take the sperm out of them. Once that happens the male cow is placed back into his stall while the farm workers place the sperm in many female cows. This basically allows the industrial farms to produce more babies and animals, which means more hormones, more meat, more diseases and most important more money.

At this point in life, I feel that the society, industrial food industries and any other companies have been able to do what ever they want and get away with it. While finding out all this disturbing information about the food we eat and the way the animals are treated makes me not want to eat meat. As industrial food industries keep feeding our animals chemicals and other substances makes me wonder what food products they are eating. I feel as if what the workers are doing to these animals is cruel and they can give a healthier life for these animals. Because I have been grown up on eating meat, its obvious that I wont become a vegetarian, but maybe the amounts of meat I consume daily can decrease my chances of getting any diseases being passed on. Also cutting down on eating fast foods, which again is fast produced food products and companies making profits, can allow myself to make a slow change in my eating habits.

In today’s society People need to become more aware of what they are eating and be more educated about what’s happening to these animals. We as a community should come together and stand up against these companies that are demonstrating animal cruelty, we have to realize that in the long run the animal cruelty is affecting us as well. That's what confuses me the most, the fact that someone is allowing people to harm these animals which eventually would be harming those who eat it.

Final Food Assignment

In todays society, several people have been consuming food products that have been either shipped or produced in factories. Meaning that the food products have lost its natural value. The majority of vegetables, fruits, and many other farm grown products have turned into fast produced products. When we eat we usually don't take the time out to think where our food came from, or even how it was made. We buy our meats and dairy products from supermarkets and companies. The meat and chicken come from animals who have been abused and tortured to gain weight faster, while the companies selling these products make more profit. That alone changes the value of our food, making the animals gain weight im assuming isnt healthy for them nor is it natural. Because the food industry and other major companies have gained so much power over the society and culture, they are able to manipulate how the animals are raised. The food industry and major companies managed to push out the original farms where the animals were treated fairly to make their factories where there is animal cruelty so that they can make their profits. Thats where I society is leading towards, treating animals bad just to make a quick buck and soon our own citizens.

In todays culture, the society we live in is based on eating industrialized foods. The food that we are consuming are produced in factories in which the chemicals used are harmful to the animals. While watching the movie "Meatrix", it talked about how the dominant food industries were able take over small family farms which were growing their food in a healthy organic environment. The larger food companies are able to produce a larger variety of food products much faster than the smaller family farms, because the factories are able to use machines, which end up having the small farms shut down. The factories use several subtances, chemicals and other hormones to enhance the animals growth speed. This allows them to produce more meat when they die which again means more money for the companies. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed steroid-like chemicals to increase their growth at a rapid pace that their weak chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals to fatten them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. The chemicals that are in these animals later on cause us to get diseases. Once an animal dies, example the cow, in some situations the dead cows blood is fed to a living cow which increases the chances of us getting affecting.

As well as harming these animals the factored are harming our world with their pollution. In the video VROOM which we watched in class. In this video there was a scene that showed a huge field of crops that were getting harvested, after this scene a huge truck spraying pesticides and other harmful chemicals was shown. These chemicals that were sprayed killed the crops which made it easier for them to destroy them and use more machines to destroy our planet with all the fossil fuels being used. The example above show how huge companies don’t care about nature they just care about the profit.

One thing that stood out to me the most was not only do these factories fatten up their animals, they also take the sperm of their males and perform artificial insemination on their female animals. According to a video we watched in class, the farm workers would bring a male cow to a female cow and get it in heat. Once the male cow has produced sperm to have sex with the female cow the workers will take the male cow and stick a tube in their body which is able to take the sperm out of them. Once that happens the male cow is placed back into his stall while the farm workers place the sperm in many female cows. This basically allows the industrial farms to produce more babies and animals, which means more hormones, more meat, more diseases and most important more money.

At this point in life, I feel that the society, industrial food industries and any other companies have been have to do what ever they want and get away with it. while finding out all these disturbing information about the food we eat and the way the animals are treated makes me not want to eat meat. As industrial food industries keep feeding our animals chemicals and other substances makes me wonder what food products they are eating. I feel as if what the workers are doing to these animals are cruel and they can give a healthier life for these animals. Because I have been grown up on eating meat, its obvious that I wont become a vegeterian, but maybe the amounts of meat I consume daily can decrease my chances of getting any diseases being passed on. Also cutting down on eating fast foods, which again is fast produced food products and companies making profits, can allow myself to make a slow change in my eating habbits.

In todays society People need to become more aware of what they are eating and be more educated about whats happening to these animals. We as a community should come together and stand up against these companies that are demonstrating animal cruelty, we have to realize that in the lonog run the animal cruelty is affecting us as well. That's what confuses me the most, the fact that someone is allowing people to harm these animals which eventually would be harming those who eat it.

Food #8: Industrial food

Looking at the article "Myth three: Industrial food is cheap" the title alone contradicts itself. How could this be true? Food products being made faster by machines and technology just sounds as if it cost more money. "This myth of cheap food is routinely used by agribusiness as a kind of economic blackmail against any who point out the devastating impacts of modern food production. Get rid of the industrial system, we are told, and you won't be able to afford food. " The first thing that comes to my mind when reading this is, if we cant "afford" food to eat or survive than theres something wrong with our society. The next best move is to grow our own foods, vegetables, spices, things that we can eat and that are healthy. Growing your own products or even going to pick natural grown plants and vegetables have to be money consuming. Natural grown plants and vegetables allow you to avoid pesticides and other chemicals and poisons that are usually placed on store bought products. Also decreasing the environments pollution rates on our water, soil, and air. Vehicles moving food around the world burn massive amounts of fossil fuels, exacerbating air and water pollution problems. This is going to make the society suffer in the long run leading to costs of problems of global warming and ozone depletion. To me it seems that industrial food isn't cheap because the environment, society, and our health is being damaged also making us lose money.

People are affected daily by food illness due to consuming industrial foods, including the contribution of pesticides, hormones, and other chemical inputs. "Industrial food's health price tag should reflect the expense, pain, and suffering of the tens of millions who are victims of such diseases as obesity and heart disease caused by industrial fast-food diets." Meaning the real cost of these fast food products should resemble the price of someones life. The cost of medical health costs are clearly in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year. "According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farming is among the most accident-prone industries in the United States. Whereas the occupational fatality rate for all private sector industries is 4.3 per 100,000 full-time employees, the rate for agriculture, forestry, and fishing occupations was 24 per 100,000 -- or nearly six times the national average."The population of farmers for over 70 years ago has decreased from 7 million to 2 million, although or population has doubled from that time. The United States has lost an average of 32,500 farms per year, about 80 percent of which were family-run. A mere 50,000 farming operations now account for 75 percent of U.S. food production.

Connecting this back to my own food ways and the dominant corporate food messages, I see that the things the society and culture advertises are truely bias. The dominant corporate media sends contradicting messages to brainwash our social class, and target our pop culture to capture our human minds