Interurban Queen by R.A. Lafferty

This peice or writing by Lafferty takes a look at the beggining of the car industry and how it would effect the world. It is very intresting however because its story is written as if the car industry never was succesful and infact crashed right away. It gives a completely different perspective on the story and a what if factor that keeps a reader intrested. It begins in 1907 when a man attains a considerable inheritance. He was determining what to do with the money and decided to either invest in the auto industry or an interurban railway stock. He asked wise men which he should invest into. Many of the men said that the auto industry destroyed a part of themselves, said it will destroy a part of the society. Another says that the car will never be able to be a main form of transportation because it wont be able to transfer cattle and won't be able to perform the same type of functions as a train. Another rich man who owned many cars himself said "No the automobile will never be anything but a rich man's pride" Another person said that the car wont be succesful because it can't be compared to the man on horse. A man on a horse has a sense of arogance about himself just like a man in a car. That is why the automobile will be so dangerous, "The kindest man in the world assumes an incridible arrogance when he drives". He is saying that the car will make every man so independent and arogant that they will become tyranical. All these men believe that the auto industry wont be succesful for all these differant reasons. In the story the man still invests in the automobile and loses all of his money.

Electric Car's Effect on the World

This article discusses the pros and cons of the electric car and how it will effect the world. The article is promoting the cars because they: Release less polution than regular cars, require less maintenance, and will eventually with increase of demand decrease in price. A big focus in the article was that the cars "Run silent, run fast, run clean". This is important becasue its trying to say that the cars run just as well as other cars if not better but also help promote staying green. With the massive emphasis placed on recycling and staying green as of late the electric car is ready to launch its industry. The timing couldn't be any better for these cars to be released to the public, as long as the prices can be dropped the cars will be an instant success. The cars will continue to increase in range, speed, and flexibility with the more technology that comes out. The cars will begin to drop in recharge time while being able to travel longer off of each charge. Atlanta is one area that is really making a push for the release of these cars as they are projected to have over 200 recharge stations in the years to come.
I think that with the introduction of the electric car our country will begin to really become more green. We need to realize how fast we are destroying our world and that every single persons choices can help. If every person bought a electric car to replace their own the amount of polution we would be preventing is astonomical. The electric car could be one of the first steps to really helping preserve our natural resources and saving the world.

Source Citation:
Barry, Tom. "Electric Cars Can Reduce Air Pollution." Opposing Viewpoints: Energy Alternatives. Ed. Helen Cothran. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 10 Feb. 2010 http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010220227&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=deer63488&version=1.0.

The Electric Car

Although most think the electric car has seemingly been a recent atempt to improve the automobile, it has infact been a concept since the beginning of cars. Technology hasn't been able to produce an electric car that has made enough sense economically to mass produce, untill now. Companies began making hybrid cars that were built to although still revolve around their gas powered engines were also able to use a battery in order to improve gas consumption. There are many problems however with the new fully electric cars: What is the easiest way to charge the cars? how long will the batteries last? Will they have the same functionability as gas powered cars? Many companies believe that the technology is still not yet available to produce the fully equiped electric cars however Chevrolet is releasing its Volt late next year and believes that it will be succesfull. Another big problem is with the audio systems, air conditioners, how much battery power will be needed for a car to function properly? At an auto show many automakers were comical with the introduction of hours-to-recharge on a cars dashboard. The Volt will take close to 23 hours for just 150 miles of driving.

If this market is ever going to take off I believe that they need to find a much faster form of recharging these cars. The automobile industry took off becasue of the flexibility it gave people with such a low downtime. All people had to do was fill up with gas, taking maybe 5-10 minutes of their days and were then able to drive upwards of 500 miles. Now, these new cars need a full day to travel less tahn 1/3 of that distance? The sales of these cars will never come close to that of regular cars untill they can fix this problem. Another big problem with these cars is that once a normal car has retired it can be almost 100% recycled and reused in other cars or other industries. When a battery powered car is recycled the battery is filled with toxic waste that can't be easily dealt with. Automakers must find solutions to these problems before they should try to release their products. I do think however that once these problems are fixed that these cars will be the thing of the future. Especially with the focus on staying green with the turn of the century, these cars will help us preserve our natural resources in the land. With all the new technology we have destroyed our earth and many eco friendly people will see buying these cars as a first step to helping save the rest of our beautiful earth.

http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%2528en%252C%252C%2529%253AFQE%253D%2528su%252CNone%252C12%2529electric%2Bcar%253AAnd%253ALQE%253D%2528LM%252CNone%252C4%2529News%2524&contentSet=IAC-Documents&sort=DateDescend&tabID=T004&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=DISPLAY_SUBJECTS&prodId=OVRC&searchId=R5&currentPosition=5&userGroupName=deer63488&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C12%29electric+car%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28LM%2CNone%2C4%29News%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=A192577555&docType=IAC

Source Citation:
Moran, Tim. "Dealing with realities of an electric-car fleet.(Automobiles)(GREENTECH)." The New York Times. 158. 54566 (Jan 25, 2009): 7(L). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 8 Feb. 2010 .

Stem Cell Research

Stem Cell Research has been a huge new technology advancement in the scientific field. Stem cells can be used for hundreds of medical and scientific purposes. Jean Peduzzi-Nelson has determined through research adult stem cells have a much higher success rate than that of embryonic cells. While embryonic stem cells are very usefull in drug testing and are able to form into all different types of cells. Adult stem cells on the other hand are infact one of the safest and best treatments and suprisingly hasn't really even been introduced to the public. The adult stem cells are able to bypass rejection, disease transmission, chromosomal abnormalities, and uncontrolled growth because the stem cells can be taken from a persons own body. Stem cells are a huge focus for medical technology because they are projected to eventually be able to cure hundreds of different of diagnoses and could be one of the biggest medical advancements in history. Doctors believe that this future for medicine isn't too far away and more and more reseach is being done every day. While adult stemcells are continuously succeeding they won't become the main sorce of stem cell treatment untill a more safe way to derive the cells is found. One of the biggest questions is if they can be found in sperm?
How amazing would it be if doctors could take your own cells, treat them, and then replace them into your body to heal a disease or other diagnoses. Science and medicine has advanced so much in recent years and its too crazy to think about. What if these cells could be used as permenant treatments for AIDS, cancer, and other huge problems. Society must realize how close we are to something so big like this and help with donations for research and helping in any other way they can. Treatments like this could change our world forever.

http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%2528en%252C%252C%2529%253AFQE%253D%2528su%252CNone%252C12%2529%2522Stem%2Bcells%2522%2524&contentSet=GSRC&sort=Relevance&tabID=T010&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=DISPLAY_SUBJECTS&prodId=OVRC&searchId=R7&currentPosition=6&userGroupName=deer63488&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C12%29%22Stem+cells%22%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=EJ3010453227&docType=GSRC

Jean Peduzzi-Nelson. "Adult Stem Cells Are More Promising than Embryonic Stem Cells." Opposing Viewpoints: Stem Cells. Ed. Jacqueline Langwith. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 8 Feb. 2010 .

Where I'm At

So far the topic of science and technology has been very intesting for me. There are so many different angles you can take when approaching the topic and it gives you a lot of flexibility to explore what really intrests you. So far I've looked at transportation, communication, and im starting to get a little more specific while looking at the atom bomb. I'm really excited to see where I'm going to end up taking this topic. So far tho, so good.

Truman: Atomic Bomb Announcement

President Harry Truman made this anouncement to the American people in a nationwide broadcast 16 hours after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. In the broadcast he informed the United States of the dropping. He explained that "With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces." He is saying that this new developed weapon is so destructive that it is harnessing the power of the universe. He doesn't explain however the possible consequences of this decision. He doesn't tell the public that there is a chance other countries might get this same technology and use it against them. This massive power he compares to the power of the son isn't strictly for America.
Truman says, "We have spent $2 billion on the greatest scientific gamble in history--and won." The real question is have they won however? They killed over 150,000 people with the dropping of the two bombs and started an atomic war that will change the course of the world forever. Have they infact won on this gamble? Maybe short term Truman can convince the people that this is a victory however once the atomic race began it was very clear how badly this gamble went. Truman says at the end of his speech that congress must controll the creation of the atomic power in order to maintain worldwide peace. He thinks that with the power of the atomic bomb congress will still be able to control it with other countries. Looking back at this speech its so hard to think how he ever thought this would be possible.
http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=33&entryid=325580&searchtext=atom+bomb&type=simple&option=all

"Harry Truman: Hiroshima atomic bomb announcement (1945)." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010.

Atomic Bomb

The atomic bomb was one of the most controversial war tactics of all time. The U.S. used the atomic bomb to put an end to world war two by taking out Japan. The U.S. initially dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima attempting to dismantle the country and have it surrender in the war. This bomb killed tens of thousands of people however Japan remained in the war. The U.S. then dropped "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, a huge industrial center for Japan, by annihilating Nagasaki the U.S. destroyed Japans income and forced it out of the war. The combined bombs killed upwards of 150,000 people. Although at the time taking out Japan seemed like it was the only option looking back the impact the atomic bombs creation has had on the world is devastating. The amount of nuclear power in the world right now could destroy the world multiple times. The amount of power many countries now hold is far to much. The fact that bothers me the most is that our own country was the leading country in the atomic race. We failed to realize the underlying consequences in these actions and have now caused a huge problem for the future generations. Multiple countries could end the world by the click of a button because of our mistake and it is inexcusable. In all honesty I don't think anything will be able to be done about this becasue all of the countries will continue to make their atomic weapons, even if they agree to stop making them. Each country needs to make its own to feel safe from the other countries because they need to have the same weapon capability. While everyone continues to make more and more bombs however the world just continues to lose its safety. Because of the U.S.'s one decision to drop the atomic bomb our world will never be the same.

http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com/Explore/Display.aspx?categoryid=13&entryid=1185821&searchtext=atomic+bomb&type=simple&option=all&filterid=

Tucker, Spencer C. "Dropping the Bomb Saved Lives." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010. .