Friday, May 31, 2019

Essay --

For more than 30 years, marijuana economic consumption has been associated with harsh penalties and irrational consequences. Millions of slew are sent to prison each year for wide-eyed possession or consumption of this plant. This issue has fueled political disagreements over the years increasing conflict between both state and federal governments. two sides have strong and supportive arguments which still is an ongoing battle to this day. However, marijuana is here to stay the state of Colorado has already fully legalized recreational use of marijuana. Looking at the amount of revenue Colorado brings in from marijuana sales, its clear that marijuana has a significant potential in bringing property into the economy. Many would agree that the war on drugs has deteriorated our personal freedoms and has wasted money over the decades for both the government and people. Marijuana should be legal because prohibition has been proved not to work. Taxing the sales of marijuana, similar to alcohol, will help boost the economy. Regulating marijuana in an orderly way will make it a safe and healthy environment for users and families in the United States. Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s is very similar to the prohibition of marijuana in recent years. The principal(prenominal) reason the government made drinking alcohol illegal in the 1920s was to reduce the number of people consuming alcohol and to help lower criminal offence levels. It was also enforced to protect minors from becoming alcoholics at an early age (Blocker 233-243). However, as much as prohibition had good intentions to stop people from abusing alcohol, it only made things worse. It triggered major strikes, raids in alcohol warehouses, and created a mass underground cutting market in which violence and crime leve... ...of Colorado and Washington. flock wouldnt have to resort on getting their marijuana from shady dealers that could potentially cause harm to them. Marijuana alone doesnt lead p eople to trying harder drugs the black market has opened the doors to people to try harder drugs because dealers carry a variety of them. Our economy would save billions from having to build prisons to jail innocent people. People with diseases would have a safe alternative to prescription drugs which have ca utilise more deaths than marijuana. The production of hemp would benefit many farmers and industries. It will greatly reduce the amount of cotton used for many products. If more people open their mind and get educated in seeing the benefits that marijuana can bring into our society, marijuana legalization throughout the country will be the greatest decision to the United States in decades.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Great Expectations by Charles

Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Great Expectations by Charles DickensLord of the Flies, by William Golding was written in 1954 almost a coke after Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations, in 1860.Both of the novels argon considered as being classics and have been madeinto films and the newss while seeming completely different do havesimilarities although they are in different social, historical andcultural settings.The frameworks of the books are completely different, Lord of theFlies starts as a traditional boys adventure narrative like CoralIsland, by R.M. Ballantyne, however it is subverted to a dark,menacing story about how people behave when the constraints of societyare removed. The island is a microcosm of society, and in the book wesee examples of hierarchy, the social divide, military personnel nature, and howthe boys, with no adults, start to rely on their basic savageinstincts. Great Expectations is mainly about the divides betweenthe rich and the poor, a popul ar theme in the Victorian times as theindustrial revolution had broadened and highlighted the divide,however both books do reflect on society, and the weakness of humannature. Both the books, while having a traditional framework, have anoriginal element. Not more an(prenominal) memoirs are as strange and varied as Pips,and not many boys adventure stories turn as dark and menacing asGoldings novel.In the opening chapters the settings of the books are contrasting, inLord of the Flies, the boys are in tropic splendor, (the pool)It was clear to the bottom and bright with the efflorescence oftropical weed and coral (pg 17), while in Great Expectations theopening chapter is set in a graveyard, which is clammy a... ...agwitch in historn, coarse and disheveled state,A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. Aman with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied roundhis head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud,and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and roiling by nettles, and tornby briars who limped.From this the reader can see that, although the opening chapters ofboth novels seem completely unrelated, in fact when the reader looksmore closely, many parallels can be seen. For example though thesettings are very diverse, one being a wind swept moor, and the otherbeing a tropical island, both are menacing. Although these books werewritten almost a century apart, and at first seem to be on differenttopics, many of the key features are the same, and many of thecharacters posses similar qualities.

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

The Great Gatsby Character Dev :: essays research papers

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTIn a novel the narrator is the vehicle, the one singing the story to the reader. Laying out critical information, describing the setting, creating wit and atmosphere, and generating information upon which we create our opinions on characters and events in the novel. These are classically what we associate the narrator with regard to the novel and its progression. The characters that the author describes are the major focus of the novel. Characters diversify and develop over the course of the novel, if there were no kind of change in any(prenominal) of the characters the novel would be almost pointless. Stories need to have round characters, whether they change for the better of worse, if nothing happened the novel wouldnt be much to read and wouldnt leave the reader satisfied one way or another in the end. What is interesting is when the narrator takes on a different type of role in a novel. He is no longer used merely as a device to incorporate information instead he plays an important and active part in the development of the plot.Traditionally the narrator is usually after-school(prenominal) of the story, but in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway (the narrator) is much more than that. Nick in this novel is an active member of the story, being only bit in importance to the main character Jay Gatsby. This novel takes a very different approach in its development of the characters. Having the narrator change more than any of the other characters, this thesis will explain Fitzgeralds unusual development of the characters and their prominenter significance through the novel. For although we would expect a certain, standard technique in telling a story, Fitzgerald uses a much different method. The first person to discuss is the main character of the story Jay Gatsby. A self made man, who amasses a great amount of wealth, he is a romantic idealist trapped in his own world. Though we would initially expect this charact er to have the most heavy(p) and recognizable change for no other reason than he is the main character, he doesnt. Not only does he not change but he in fact he is incapable of change. He cannot, because his life is dedicated to the fulfillment of a romantic dream. A dream so powerful he becomes blinded with this self-delusion that no matter what happens, what the turn of events, it will come true.

Tatparya and its role in verbal understanding :: Concept of Intention Sentence Papers

Tatparya and its role in verbal understandingI see to it the concept of invention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal recognition (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. An effort has been made to shew an account of the apprehension of intention (tatparya) in four types of sentences a) the enigmatic sentence b) the non-ambiguous sentence c) the vedic sentence and d) the sentence expressed by a parrot. I.The present paper gives an account of the concept of intention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal comprehension (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, which is followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. In this connection, an effort has been made to give an account of the apprehension of intention (Tatparya) in four types of sentence (a) ambiguous sentence (b) non-ambiguous sentence (c) vedic sentence and (d) sentences uttered by a parrot.II.The Naiyayikas have poi nted out the philosophical moment of intention (Tatparya) first in the context of enquiring the seed of implicative meaning (Laksana). To them the non-realisability of intention or tatparya (tatparyanupapatti) is the seed of laksana i.e. implicative meaning. In fact, the implicative meaning of the consideration, ganga as found in the sentence gangayam ghosah is the bank of the ganga.. The primary meaning of the terms ghosah and ganga are ghosapalli and a particular flow of water (Jalapravaha-visesa) respectively. The milk-man-colony can non remain in a particular flow of water and hence there is the non-realisability of the likeness (anvayanupapatti) between them. This can be removed, if the bank of the ganga is taken as the meaning of the term ganga through laksana. In the same way, the implicative meaning of the term ghosah is also possible. In the former pillow slip laksana in the term ganga is accepted, but not in the term ghosah. In another, the reverse case is accepted. I f laksana is accepted in either of the terms, there will not be the non-realisability in respect of relation (anvayanupapatti). If it is argued that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is the result of laksana, the rule that the implicative meaning of the terms ganga and ghosah are to be accepted becomes meaningless. In reply, it can be said that the rule becomes contradicted if it is accepted that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is both the result and seed of laksana.Tatparya and its role in verbal understanding construct of Intention Sentence PapersTatparya and its role in verbal understandingI examine the concept of intention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal comprehension (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. An effort has been made to give an account of the apprehension of intention (tatparya) in four types of sentences a) the ambiguous sentence b) the non-ambiguo us sentence c) the vedic sentence and d) the sentence uttered by a parrot. I.The present paper gives an account of the concept of intention (tatparya) and its role in the phenomenon of verbal comprehension (sabdabodha) with special reference to Navya Nyaya, which is followed by some critical and evaluative remarks. In this connection, an effort has been made to give an account of the apprehension of intention (Tatparya) in four types of sentence (a) ambiguous sentence (b) non-ambiguous sentence (c) vedic sentence and (d) sentences uttered by a parrot.II.The Naiyayikas have pointed out the philosophical significance of intention (Tatparya) first in the context of enquiring the seed of implicative meaning (Laksana). To them the non-realisability of intention or tatparya (tatparyanupapatti) is the seed of laksana i.e. implicative meaning. In fact, the implicative meaning of the term, ganga as found in the sentence gangayam ghosah is the bank of the ganga.. The primary meaning of the te rms ghosah and ganga are ghosapalli and a particular flow of water (Jalapravaha-visesa) respectively. The milk-man-colony cannot remain in a particular flow of water and hence there is the non-realisability of the relation (anvayanupapatti) between them. This can be removed, if the bank of the ganga is taken as the meaning of the term ganga through laksana. In the same way, the implicative meaning of the term ghosah is also possible. In the former case laksana in the term ganga is accepted, but not in the term ghosah. In another, the reverse case is accepted. If laksana is accepted in either of the terms, there will not be the non-realisability in respect of relation (anvayanupapatti). If it is argued that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is the result of laksana, the rule that the implicative meaning of the terms ganga and ghosah are to be accepted becomes meaningless. In reply, it can be said that the rule becomes contradicted if it is accepted that the removal of the non-realisability of relation is both the result and seed of laksana.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Crew Resource Management and Aviation Safety Essay -- Essays Papers Fl

Abstract Throughout the history of air power, accidents have and will continue to occur. With the introduction of larger and more complex aircraft, the number of humans required to hunt these complex machines has increased as well as, some say, the probability of human error. There are studies upon studies of aircraft accidents and incidents resulting from breakdowns in crew coordination and, more specifically, crew communication. These topics are the movement force behind crew imaging perplexity. This paper will attempt to present the concept of crew resource management (CRM) and its impact on air travel safety in modern commercial and military aviation. The concept is not a new one, but is continually evolving and can even include non-human elements such as computer-controlled limitations on aircraft maneuvers and the conflicts that result in the airline industry. Crew Resource Management and aura Safety Since the birth of aviation, man has been tasked wi th operating aircraft safely, yet effectively. From the commencement ceremony days of being able to simply operate an aircraft without injury for seconds at a time, to todays issues with safety in supersonic international travel, crew resource management has been with us in some from the beginning. The term CRM began to spread in the 1980s among the major airlines, fueled by industry and university research into human factors. The U.S. military has also taken a very active in the development of CRM techniques to aid in the high stress environment of military aviation. The basic concept of crew resource management (CRM) is to train crewmembers to use all available personnel, equipment, and experience to safely and effectively operate an aircraft. It is used in nearly every facet of aviation from the smallest regional airline, to the largest major carrier, to the various crew operated military aircraft. One aspect of aviation missing from the fold is the familiar aviat ion (GA) community, such as the undercover pilot. This has become a growing concern as many future air carrier pilots and military pilots begin as private pilots. The need for CRM preparation in this area is there, but the training seems excessive and useless to many in the field as most of these pilots operate single pilot aircraft. maybe this attitude comes from the term crew and is dismissed by the ... ... problem are under constant development and analysis, in a hope to avoid these situations. The civil industry continues to lead in development due to commercialization, with the military not far behind. The only real deficiency in CRM program development seems to be the area of general aviation as described earlier. Until this problem is addressed, there will still be a glaring weakness in the general area of aviation safety. However, with the rate of technology increase and cheaper methods of instruction, we should begin to see this problem addressed in the near fut ure. Until then, aviation will rely on civil commercial aviation the military to continue research and program development for the years to come, hopefully resulting in an increasingly safe method of travel and recreation.ReferencesHawkins, Frank H. (1987). Human Factors in Flight, 2nd ed., 35, 36.Santiago, Marco Jr. (1996). Application of Crew Resource Management and Line Oriented Flight Training Concepts to General Aviation Flight Training. Arizona State University.Simmon, David A. (1998). Boeing 757 CFIT Accident at Cali, Columbia, Becomes Focus of Lessons Learned. Flight Safety Digest.

Crew Resource Management and Aviation Safety Essay -- Essays Papers Fl

Abstract Throughout the history of aviation, accidents have and will continue to occur. With the introduction of larger and more complex aircraft, the number of humans required to bring these complex machines has increased as well as, some say, the probability of human error. There argon studies upon studies of aircraft accidents and incidents resulting from breakdowns in crew coordination and, more specifically, crew communication. These topics are the driving force behind crew resource management. This paper will attempt to present the ideal of crew resource management (CRM) and its impact on aviation safety device in modern commercial and military aviation. The concept is not a revolutionary one, but is continually evolving and can even include non-human elements such as computer-controlled limitations on aircraft maneuvers and the conflicts that result in the airline industry. Crew Resource care and melodic phrase Safety Since the birth of aviation, man h as been tasked with operating aircraft safely, yet effectively. From the beginning days of being able to simply operate an aircraft without injury for seconds at a time, to todays issues with safety in supersonic international travel, crew resource management has been with us in some from the beginning. The term CRM began to spread in the 1980s among the major airlines, fueled by industry and university research into human factors. The U.S. military has also taken a very active in the development of CRM techniques to aid in the high melodic phrase environment of military aviation. The basic concept of crew resource management (CRM) is to train crewmembers to use all available personnel, equipment, and experience to safely and effectively operate an aircraft. It is used in nearly every facet of aviation from the smallest regional airline, to the largest major postman, to the various crew operated military aircraft. One aspect of aviation wanting from the fold is the g eneral aviation (GA) community, such as the private pilot. This has become a growing concern as many future air carrier pilots and military pilots begin as private pilots. The need for CRM training in this area is there, but the training seems excessive and useless to many in the athletic field as most of these pilots operate single pilot aircraft. Perhaps this attitude comes from the term crew and is dismissed by the ... ... problem are under unbroken development and analysis, in a hope to avoid these situations. The civilian industry continues to lead in development due to commercialization, with the military not far behind. The sole(prenominal) real deficiency in CRM program development seems to be the area of general aviation as described earlier. Until this problem is intercommunicate, there will up to now be a glaring weakness in the general area of aviation safety. However, with the rate of technology increase and cheaper methods of instruction, we should begin t o see this problem addressed in the near future. Until then, aviation will rely on civil commercial aviation the military to continue research and program development for the years to come, hopefully resulting in an increasingly safe method of travel and recreation.ReferencesHawkins, Frank H. (1987). Human Factors in Flight, 2nd ed., 35, 36.Santiago, Marco Jr. (1996). Application of Crew Resource Management and Line Oriented Flight Training Concepts to General Aviation Flight Training. Arizona State University.Simmon, David A. (1998). Boeing 757 CFIT Accident at Cali, Columbia, Becomes Focus of Lessons Learned. Flight Safety Digest.

Monday, May 27, 2019

New Invention

It is recommended that every person should consume eight glasses of piss a day. For this project, we are given the ability to create anything we wanted with the simple request that we highlight the affects it would have. If I could create anything in the beingness, I would pawn the invention of a cable car that had the capability to filter and cleanse any scale of water system at any given moment immediately. Now many people go forth say that I should create something beneficial to myself, such as a time machine, or a teleportation device of some sort.But one of the major benefits of this machine is that not only does it benefit every person individually, but it benefits our entire world on a grander scale. One of the key elements that this machine backside do, is it can cleanse and purify any amount of water, meaning, it allow for be able to filter masses of water such as beaches and rivers. Due to the detail that the Earths surface is compromised of seventy percent water, m any people pretermit to realize that water is such a key component in our lives. The human body can live without food for a month, but can only survive without water for a week.Now this machine will benefit the individual on personal scale by allowing every person to have rubber eraser, consumable water regardless of their location. In public places, there are opportunities to drink water from water fountains. But the cleanliness of the water coming from these drinking fountains is typically a concern that many people have. When people overwhelm for hours at a time, they become dehydrated craving water. But the consumption of chlorine-infested water or beach water is never known to be safe for anyone.Now with the ultimate water purifying machine, water can be easily accessible for anyone at anytime. Thus, this supports the hydrating of everyone as well as the steady purpose of water consumption. The United States utilizes about three-hundred and forty six million gallons of fre sh water every day. Fortunately for our nation, there isnt a dire remove for clean water. But with the amount of oils spills, pollution of air, these accumulations of events have brought our nation to an urgent call for the cleansing and purifying of our water.Fortunately for our nation, the United States utilizes eighty percent of its water for irrigation and thermoelectric power. But with this invention, we can further the beneficial and positive uses that our nation utilizes water for. With this invention, we can purify the surrounding water bodies so that our wildlife in the sea can resist fatality from pollution of our waters such as oil spills and toxic wastes. This invention can also eliminate water-borne illnesses that spread in public water arenas such as swimming pools, lakes, and beaches.Following the elimination of oil spills, toxic waste dumps, and other negative impact happenings from the United States, this prevents them from bed covering to other areas of the Earth as well as preserving the oceanic animal lives. On a worldwide scale, more than one billion people lack a reliable source providing safe, drinking water. Unfortunately, our world lacks the resources to supply the huge demand and need for water. As much as eighty percent of our worlds illnesses derived from water-borne illnesses. In poverty-stricken areas, the consumption of dirty water or even lack of water to consume is fairly common.With this invention, the placement of this machine in poverty-stricken areas will purify the waters, supply the needy with clean and consumable water, and lead those nations away from hunger. Evidently, an invention that revolves around the cleansing and purifying of water bodies is a major benefit personally, towards our nation, and in the grander scheme, towards our entire world. A machine that could potentially supply those in need with clean water for their consumption, that could cleanse the polluted waters, and that could blade a major push tow ards a healthy dosage of water consumption, could very well result in a life-changing move.This invention will suffer a means of consumable water at any place, reassured of its cleanliness and pure quality. This invention will support our wildlife in the ocean by ridding the oceans and bodies of water in our nation, of its toxic wastes and spills that threaten their lives. This invention will eliminate the water deprived bodies of the poor, providing them with clean water, and aiding them in drinking water to rid their bodies of diseases and deficiencies. Clearly, the invention of this machine will aid our nation in a push for a better world.

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Quantitative Determination of Sulfate by Gravimetric Analysis Essay

1. SynopsisThis report is written about determining the quantitative amount of sulfate inside atomic number 56 sulfate, BaSO, utilise the method of gravimetric analysis. This quantitative determination is done by the addition of a thin solution of barium chloride slowly to a hot secret sulfate solution slightly acidified by unvoiced hydrochloric acid, HCl. The white precipitate of barium sulphate is filtered off, washed with urine, oven-dried, and weighed as barium sulphate. The quantitative amount of sulphate is deduced from mathematical calculations. The results of the experiment, however, did not defer positively, probably due to inadvertent human error over the course of the experiment. The percentage yield of sulphate inside barium sulphate attained from our results was not up to expectations. The percentage yield of sulphate was expected to be at least 90% and higher up, with 90% as a approximate percentage yield. Instead, we attained 54% percentage yield of sulphate. 2. ObjectiveThe purpose of the experiment is to determine the quantitative amount of sulphate inside barium sulphate exploitation the method of gravimetric analysis.3. Theory3.1 SummaryThroughout the duration of the experiment, there are many influences, techniques, chemicals, and instruments used to produce the results of the experiment. There are a total of three simple manages of procedures take aimd, in the gravimetric analysis method, in order to create the results of the experiment. The first procedure is the precipitation of BaSO, barium sulphate, followed by the south procedure, the washing and filtration of BaSO precipitate. The third and final procedure is the drying and weighing of the dry sample of BaSO precipitate. From there, the results are gathered by methodical mathematical calculations. 3.2 Technique gravimetric synopsisGravimetric analysis is a series of methods in analytical chemistry for finding the quantitative amount of a certain analyte based on a sampl e of solid. To perform gravimetric analysis, one of the most common land methods is to convert the analyte into a solid via the use of precipitation with the appropriate reagent chemicals. After that, the precipitate is dispassionate via filtration, washed, dried, off all moisture content, and weighed. Then, the quantitative amount of analyte in the sample is calculated from the mass of the precipitate and its chemical composition. There are many advantages using gravimetric analysis. It allows for extremely precise analysis, such as the determination of many elements atomic masses up to six decimal places. It also does not require expensive scientific equipment to perform such analysis and, furthermore, it can even be used to calibrate scientific instruments in lieu of international graphic symbol standards.3.3 ChemicalsDuring the experiment, some chemicals were used to obtain the barium sulphate, BaSO4, from which the quantitative amount of sulphate can be found from within. Th e chemicals used were dilute 10% barium chloride solution, BaCl2, dilute 0.5% atomic number 11 sulphate solution, (Na)2SO4, and concentrated hydrochloric acid solution, HCl. In order to obtain barium sulphate, a chemical process, known as the fault reaction, was utilised. In the displacement reaction, the cations and anions switch places from their original compounds to form entirely different compounds. In this experiment, 10% barium chloride solution is added to 0.5% sodium sulphate solution (which is slightly acidified by adding concentrated hydrochloric acid), resulting in the formation of soluble barium sulphate.3.4 InstrumentsIn the experiment, various scientific instruments were used in the determination of the quantitative amount of sulphate. The following instruments were used, were the 250ml beaker, the bulb make freight and vacuum-clean-assisted pipette, the measuring piston chamber, the watch glass, the laboratory crucible, the vacuum meat, the hot atmosphere oven, the desiccator, and the digital analytical weighing balance. The 250ml beaker is a cylindrical container with a flat bottom, which is used as a simple container to stir, heat, or mix various liquids. The vacuum-assisted pipette is a hollow narrow piston chamber that has a large bulge with a maven graduation mark as it is calibrated for its specific volume, primarily between 10ml, 25ml, and 50ml. The bulb filler is the simplest form of the pipette dispenser, using pinch valves to draw air within to create a vacuum within the vacuum-assisted pipette. The two pieces of laboratory equipment are generally used in conjunction with one another.The bulb filler is carefully inserted on top on the vacuum-assisted pipette. The pinch valves can be manipulated to draw the liquid inside the pipette. The measuring cylinder is a narrow cylinder with a flat base that is used to measure amounts of liquid with the corresponding markings along the cylinder. The watch glass is a circular, slightly co nvex-concave piece of glass that is generally used to evaporate a liquid, hold solids being weighed, or as a cover for the beaker. The laboratory crucible is a cup-shaped piece of laboratory equipment make to contain chemical compounds as they are heated to extremely-high temperatures. The hot air oven is an electrical oven used to dry chemical compounds or sterilise articles. The desiccator is a sealable border that is used to preserve items sensitive to moisture in the open air, such as cobalt chloride base. The digital analytical weighing balance is type of electronic balance made to measure small amounts of mass up till several decimal figures.4. ProceduresIn order to determine the quantitative amount of sulphate, the procedure that is split up into three smaller variances. The first section is the precipitation of barium sulphate. The second section is the washing and filtration of the barium sulphate precipitate. And, the third section is the drying and weighing of the bari um sulphate precipitate.4.1 Precipitation of BaSO21. Use the bulb filler and vacuum-assisted pipette to pipette 25ml of the 0.5% sodium sulphate solution into a 250ml beaker. 2. Add 50ml of water and 5 drops of concentrated hydrochloric acid into the beaker. Note Concentrated hydrochloric acid is highly corrosive. Add the concentrated hydrochloric acid into the beaker while handling it in the fume yobo with protective gloves and goggles. 3. Heat the beaker until it is boiling. Use a glass rod to stir the solution vigorously, while adding 10ml of 10% barium chloride solution from a measuring cylinder drop-by-drop. 4. Use a watch glass to cover the beaker and adjust the heat to just below temperatures. Leave it there to digest for 20 minutes. 5. To test for plump precipitation, add a few drops of barium chloride and observe to see if there is clear supernatant liquid.4.2 Washing and Filtration of BaSO4 Precipitate1. Take two pieces of filter paper and place them at the base of the d ry and weighed laboratory crucible. Ensure that the filter paper pieces cover the base of crucible completely. Then, use the vacuum pump to rain buckets the clear supernatant liquid by filtration into the crucible. 2. Dislodge any particles in the beaker and rinse it with warm deionised water. Empty the contents into the crucible while the vacuum pump is at work. Make sure that all the solids in the beaker have been transferred to the crucible. 3. Wash the barium sulphate precipitate further with warm deionised water at the vacuum pump twice more. 4. Discard the filtrate.4.3 Drying and Weighing of BaSO4 Precipitate1. Place the crucible, containing the BaSO4 precipitate, into the hot air oven. Set the temperature to 150C and leave it for half an hour. 2. Use the desiccator to change the crucible and precipitate for 10 minutes. 3. Once the crucible has cooled down, weigh it using the digital analytical weighing balance. 4. The weight of the BaSO4 precipitate is calculated from the d ifference between this weight and the weight of the empty crucible including the filter papers. If there is still sufficient time, you may repeat the above Steps 1-4 until a constant weight of the precipitate is successfully obtained.5. Results and Calculations 1st Drying 2nd DryingMass of Crucible + Filter Paper + seek 31.9078g 32.0188g Mass of Crucible + Filter Paper 31.7975g 31.9071gMass of Sample (BaSO4) 0.1103g 0.1117gThe mathematical calculations to attain the results of this experiment are listed below 0.5% of sodium sulphate (NaSO4) = 5100 25g = 0.125g Composition by mass of SO42- = Molecular weight of sulphate ionMolecular weight of sodium sulphate 0.125 = 0.0845g (4 significant figures) Composition by mass of SO42- prepared = Molecular weight of sulphate ionMolecular weight of barium sulphate 0.1103g = 0.04544g (4 significant figures) Percentage yield of sulphate = 0.045440.0845 100%= 53. 775% 54%6. DiscussionsThe objective of this experiment was to determine the quanti tative amount of sulphate using the gravimetric analysis method. The quantitative amount of sulphate was measured in percentage yield, which we attained 54% sooner of the expected percentage yield of 90% and above. It became obvious that somewhere along the way, in conducting the experiment, a significant error had been committed. After much analysis, it was found that there had been some sources of error that accounted for the less-than-satisfactory results. One major source of error could be the contamination of the think precipitate through the use of laboratory instruments and vessels that were not cleaned the right way. When the instruments and vessels are unclean, any left-over remains of chemicals and compounds could be unintentionally released to the intended precipitate and polluted it through a process known as co-precipitation.The foreign species could have reacted with the intended precipitate and resulted in the loss of much of the sulphate ions, leaving only 54% ins tead of the intended 90% and above. To avoid any possible error of contamination, one must keep in mind to properly clean the instruments and vessels to use in the experiment. One way to minimise the co-precipitation of substances would be leaving the solution, containing the soluble precipitate of barium sulphate, in the process of forming the precipitate, to digest longer than the standard 20 minutes. another(prenominal) source of error could be the decomposition of the precipitate itself during the process of removing moisture content in the hot air oven. The ignition can result in the losses via decomposition of the potentially-volatile precipitate.7. ConclusionIn conclusion, the results were not up to expectations due to a few sources of error that caused the less-than-satisfactory results. Gravimetric analysis is a proven set of methods to use in the field of analytical chemistry. It allows for extremely precise results, if the procedures were followed very carefully, and no e rrors were committed over the course of the experiment. However, we did not attain 90% and above for the percentage yield of sulphate as we committed some errors unknowingly. Contamination was a major issue in the experiment that would have been avoided if only we hadproperly cleaned the instruments before performing the experiment. In short, the objective of the experiment was fulfilled by attaining sulphate using the gravimetric analysis method, although not all of it was attained.8. ReferencesOnline ReferencesTheory1. Wikipedia Gravimetric AnalysisAvailable from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravimetric_analysis Accessed from 20th June 20132. Wikipedia InstrumentsAvailable from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaker_(glassware) http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipette http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_cylinder http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_glass http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucible http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_air_oven http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiccator http//en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Analytical_balanceAnalytical_balance Accessed from Accessed from 20th June 20133. R.L. Watters, Jr, 1997, Gravimetry as a Primary Method of Measurement Available from http//www.rminfo.nite.go.jp/common/pdfdata/4-002e.pdf Accessed from 20th June 2013

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Farewell Speech Essay

Worthy principle respected teacher and my dear fellow school-age child a.s.a. I am Alizeh Eman from mark 9 girls. Today we all set out gathered here to bid the matric class of our school our farewell. This academic socio-economic class is about to come to an end. We all might say that we dont like school or we want to get out of it as curtly as we can moreover when it all really comes to an end we know we will really miss it.And I bet that all the matric class students understand this perfectly well since its really the end of school for them now. They have really gone through it all and will soon enter their pratical lives. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the matric class on behalf of my whole class. This batch of the matric class shall never be forgotten. They have really been ideal seniors for us. They have correctedus when we went wrong and have patted out backs on our achievements.They have not only been peachy seniors but they have also been grea t students. The have certainly studid as hard as they could and have made their teachers proud and have inspired us to do the same. They have guided not only us but the other juniors as well and have always tried to give in your best to lead us to the adjust path. Our matric class is now at a very important stage of life. This is where a new life begins for you. It gives great sorrow to do this, but we have to bid you our goodbyes. As you step forward into this new phase of your life, we hope for you to get the very best in life. We hope from God to sustenance you under his protection and bless you with a great future. We hope you remember us through the years of life Personally, and on the behalf of Class 9, Our teachers and respected principle, I wish you all the best in your says ahead.

Friday, May 24, 2019

Technology, Human Beings and the Fate of the Earth: a Social Critique of Modern Life

Its two funny and regretful that as soon as throng set off their familiar easiness z wholeness, when they atomic number 18 al mavin, cite at a coffee shop or waiting in soak up for a bus, they automatic completely(a)y, almost reactively, background for the cell c e very(prenominal) last(predicate) to call or text slightlyone who will reconnect them with the safe and familiar human beings from which they shed momentarily wandered away.The average persons lack of ability, or willingness, to encounter an unbekn decl best(predicate) situation or territory reveals their lack of tolerance for being alone, as intimately as their lack of curiosity or craving to simply keep an eye on and appreciate their surroundings as if their bodily senses had been nullified into a potential danger zone in which their very stability of self would quickly crack should they let go a slender, observe and potentially interact with the unfolding cosmea around them.Yes, weve learned to live in minute bubbles of safety which reduce us off from our fellow-humans we no longer live in the veridical initiation, scarce in our ingest self-created knowledge domains, via the latest form of technology. I suspect that our innovational font sense of security has been entrained to operate in collusion with these expert devices that necessitate slyly entrapped our minds even as they occupy offered us implausible new possibilities.Our credence on new and ever-advancing technologies, such as the smooth telephone set which in a fewer short years has also engender a nimble photo album, mobile internet, camera, video machine and multi-media entertainment center has developed into quite a habit, an unconscious addiction that is shaping the very personality of our personalities, both(prenominal) personal and collective, and even, deity forbid, our souls. What need harbour we, the prevalent public, for an imagination when so m about(prenominal) limit slightly st imulating devices be available in our world?Who needs an inward world at all when the outer world of our avouch creations has become so evocative, so seducing, so ever-demanding, evasive and totalitarian? We ar continually flood with advertisements and societal pressures to acquire new technological distractions and modes of external stimulus. Living under such conditions, how is it possible for us to maintain or crop untold of an intimate world, or a soul, whatsoever?The underlying pass along of our media is commercial in enforcing the demands of commerce upon us, we ar defined primarily as consumers, persuaded non to bet for ourselves, only to join in the latest collective frenzy of technological adventures that continually reinterpret the purpose of our lives. This never ending flood of media proclamations, tour appearing as a material liberation, serves as a psychological oppression of the individual soul. Capitalism sells new versions of ingenuousness that may h ave secret code to do with ones sustain true needs or sensibilities. However, it is the advertisers traffic to convince us opposite(a)wise.So far they ar doing a pretty cracking job The indispensable world, the cosmos itself the halo, the trees, the vast realms of animals, plants, oceans, deserts and mountains atomic number 18 increasingly losing meaning and value in the self-hypnotized, narcissistic lives of mechanized human beings. Although it is certainly an abhorrence of our substantial heritage, we are ever-entrained to focalise slight and slight on the natural world in which we live, and of which we are but one aspect lest we for besot and more and more to focus on the world as fashioned by means of the minds and get tos of men.Its sad indeed when we ignore what is honorable before our look, i. e. our developed surrounding environment, and affablea remain culled to a collective techno-vision of the ideal man- do invigoration. Its also sad when we ig nore those human beings who are standing veracious in scarecrow of us because wed prefer to text or talk with someone miles away, when we must remain overly-attached to those we know because weve lost our human efficiency for interrelationship with our spread out world of fellow citizens who we now dismiss as strangers.Our advance in technology has engendered a compensating inversion in our contentedness for tenderness and community which is to say, the further we develop our technology, the little we appear to maintain the qualities of a loving, caring and attentive human society. Being aware in the mystery of the insert moment, tolerating the mystic, and tolerating states of non-stimulation is the for the first time shape in moving towards a more attuned state of openness and potential interaction with the actual, non-virtual, world around us.However, we have been so instruct by a perpetual bombardment of electronic stimuli radio, television, com modelers, video gam es, mobile phones/entertainment centers, etc that it has become difficult, albeit unappealing, for us to re-focus our attention on our actual physical, natural environment. A parallel take of our desensitization to the physical, natural world in which we live, is the subsequent degradation of our ecology, which entails our lack of emphasis or awareness on its living/ active/fragile/ natural disposition.The danger of this, as m both of us recognize, is potentially catastrophic as we create and live in an increasingly human- do and virtual reality wherein we believe we are safer, happier, more satisfied, etc we also increasingly ignore the actual and natural reality in which we are encompassed, and take a chance of infection the extinction of the environment with the excessive contamination, raptorial and deforestation of the planet that we have witnessed since the rise of the industrial-technological age.The degradation of the natural world is problematic in some an diff erent(prenominal) slipway. Firstly, it appears to be morally and ethically wrong at to the lowest degree to those of us whose ethics and morals outweigh our imperialist drives to destructively affect the world, its ecosystems, i. e. rivers, oceans and forests, as well as animals, plants, trees, etc. unrivalled might ask, What proper have we humans to destroy the cosmos, simply for our consume advantage? Is this not selfish and unnecessary? Many of us have asked this question, though it seems that the overall throw out of our technologically based capitalism remains unwilling to curtail its invasions and usurpations of nature, or to halt its path of destruction for the sake of morals or ethics. Where the dollar note is concerned, questions of right and wrong become thin and ineffectual, nearly meaningless. Secondly, the degradation of the natural environment is increasingly affecting the balance of the planet itself, which in turn contaminates our own quality of life.For a thorough overview of how human technology is damaging the planet, one has alone to search through a plethora of books, TV specials, or movies on this topic (i. e. An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore). I will here mention only if a few shipway in which fickle degradation affects human life. In a recent trip to Lima, Peru I learned that Peruvians predominantly drive older used cars, from the 80s or 70s, which emit luxuriously levels of visible exhaust experience making the air both toxic and putrid to breathe.Driving around town in that respect is often no escape from these fumes which pour out of the car just in front of you. The situation is just as bad in legion(predicate) a(prenominal) other developing ordinal world countries around the globe. Even here in the United States, where we have increasingly stricter emissions controls on our vehicles, the air quality in some cities is very poor, and on certain days people are advised to avoid going out of doors, or allowing their children to play outside at all.In many countries, air pollution is severe and debilitating, and only getting worse. In addition to increasing the risk of respiratory disease, the eroding of the ozone layer has also increased the risk of skin dropcer, and its become customary to slather on gobs of sunscreen lotion before going outside on a glad day for any length of time. Industrial pollution has made our body of water supplies dirty, so they are zapped with chlorine, making our water not actually enjoyable, or many would say, healthy to drink.As for our food, as genetic engineering takes hold, what we eat becomes increasingly tasteless and less nutritious. Although these are only a very few examples of the many problems made by technology, there is no denying that the degradation of the natural world leads to our own degradation. The third major impact of the degradation of nature is spiritual. As we become less attuned to the world of nature, which is step by step breaki ng down, our inherent connection to the earth dissipates.We become less the caretakers of the earth, or participants in Her splendor of glory, and moreover the survivors of a man-made final solution inflicted upon nature. We rationalize our disjuncture from nature those of us who are aware of it with the heralding of a new age of technological transcendence. In comparison with all our own awful discoveries, inventions and developments, we cannot believe that the earth is all that important. How can a handful of dirt compare to the glory of an I-phone?Our attitudes reveal a consensual belief that we are spiffing to and above the earth as also evidenced by our scientific investigations into creating hospitable conditions on other planets, as well as expanded, city-size space station in which we could unhorse to populate the greater universe, where we would, even more so, live in human-made, virtual reality realms. The bigger question is whether our spirits can tolerate or b g o bad in states of stark disconnection from the earth, our origin and planetary source of being This sort of fantastic and futuristic evolution is in livestock with our reigning eligion of Christianity, in which our sinful earthbound lives are to be potentially transformed through belief in Christ, when, upon the moment of our death, we are to near utmost into the heavens, into a cloud- give care proportionality above and beyond all the messy entanglements of this planet earth. With such a cosmo-vision, such a context of the goal of life, its no wonder the sanctitude of the earth has lost its power to impel our actions. It seems only the portended threat of our own extinction will suffice to encourage us to birth differently.For if we are only to inhabit this earth for such a brief span of time until our transcendence into a perfect eternity in another dimension harmonizely whats the big deal if we just abuse Her until were gone, because in the grand scheme of things She d oesnt matter much anyways. Christianity also teaches that, of all the creatures and life-forms upon this planet, only human beings have souls that can be saved, and thus make the transmigration beyond a mortal death into an immortal and ever-living after-life.Since, in the Christian view, zipper else upon this planet has a soul, or is capable of redemption, we justify our own paramount importance, and it becomes completely plausible to view all things as merely our own resources. In this way, we lose a perspective of value and veneration for the natural world around us while worshipping our own agendas. It becomes straightforward that many rural areas of our lives our economy, our technology and industry, our religion, and our general philosophy of living depict our own implicit overlordity complex over the natural world of creation.And yet, by and by, we get glimpses of the truth that it is impossible for military man to become superior to nature, because we are in truth an intrinsic part of the earth which we seek to dominate and control. In actuality, the world of nature is indeed superior to humankind, as we are merely one aspect of its grand panorama. However, we slip away to ignore our interconnectedness with nature, our true identity as an emergence or expression of nature, and behave as if we have the right and ability to continue dominating the earth without eventually destroying ourselves.But what goes around comes around, and sooner or ulterior you get what you give, or to put it in technological terms you input what you output. Why have we continued on in this, less than intelligent, manner? You could say that we upstart-day humans are simply dumb and indifferent, which is partially true from a holistic perspective. But beneath that we are really out of control, so fascinated by our own invented civilization that we unwrap to recognize the greater extreme and historical context in which we live.Over the past 500 years or so, the pe oples of Europe have invaded, conquered, colonize and converted virtually all other continent, people and culture upon the planet were currently working steadfast on the Middle East with our imperialistic inquisitions, our Christianity and our capitalism. In the words of Martin Prechtel, author of Secrets Of The Talking Jaguar, and an initiate of the Mayan shamanic mysteries Over the last two or three centuries, a obdurate culture-crushing mentality has incremented its progress on the earth, devouring all peoples, nature, imagination, and spiritual knowledge.Like a big mechanized slug, it has leftfield behind a flat, homogenized steak of civilization wherever it passed. Every human on this earth African, Asian, European, Islanders, or from the Americas has ancestors who at some point in their history had their stories, rituals, ingenuity, language and lifeways taken away, enslaved, banned, exploited, twisted or ruined by this push up. Our modern technological way of life i s a vast and dramatic change from the vastly more earth-friendly modes of human world that preceded this rapid international development for thousands of years.It is a sad and unpopular fact that, as Western civilization has progressed, countless other civilizations have regressed, have indeed been ravaged and washed-up by the coercion of our own ideas and powers upon them. To this day, we either disregard their suffering and continue on our own path to global domination, or we view them through the eyes of sympathetic charity, regarding ourselves, our own culture, as the superior and dominant people who will now help, aide and assist these less fortunate people whom we devastated in the first place to acquire the modes of our own elevated survival and donjon.The deceptive hypocrisy of our impact upon, and subsequent response to, third world countries is confounded by our own apparent lack of righteousness for our actions, both past and relegate, that debilitate these people. For instance, in the countries of Central & South America, our oil production facilities lead to massive destruction of both the land and the lives of the indigenous peoples. In the mid 1990? s, author Joe Kane documented the horrific impacts of corporate oil companies upon native cultures and the pristine Amazonian rainforest of Ecuador in his superbly written book, Savages.In the book, Kane describes the struggle of one of the last be indigenous tribes the Huaorani who consider themselves to have not been conquered by modern Western culture, against the impending invasion of corporate oil. Referencing his swain Judith Kimerling from her book Amazon Crude, Kane states In 1967 Texaco discovered commercial oil in the Oriente the Ecuadorian rainforest. In 1972 it completed a 312-mile pipeline from the Oriente to Ecuadors Pacific coast. From its start until just 1989, the Texaco pipeline had ruptured at least twenty seven times, spilling 16. 8 million gallons of raw crude most of it into the Orientes delicate web of rivers, creeks and lagoons. As a witness himself to a colossal oil spill into the native Ecuadorian rainforest, Kane writes, While I was in Tonampare a valve in an oil well near the Napo broke, or was left open, and for two days and a night raw crude streamed into the river at least 21,000 gallons and perhaps as many as 80,000, creating a slick that stretched from imprecate to bank for forty miles. Due to this oil spill, a state of emergency was declared downstream in both Peru and Brazil, although, according to Kane, the oil company answerable for the spill disregarded the incident and did nothing to improve the situation. While in Ecuador, Kane visited various Huaorani communities and received further firsthand reports of vast and extreme contamination, via oil spills, of their water supplies resulting in unruly health epidemics, severe illnesses and deaths.However, the problems of oil drilling extend beyond the awful impacts upon Huaor ani and Indian health in general, as the settlements made by the oil companies result in drastic disruption, deviation and desecration of tralatitious Indian culture. It is a complicated process, because the imperialistic wedge of big oil coincides with all sorts of modern Western byproducts including colonization, conversion to Christianity, and re-education of native Indians in which no element of Huaorani culture was allowed to enter the curriculum. This enforced process of refinement to Western ways results in the obliteration of the value, the history, and the very existence of traditional culture for all Indians affected. During the months that Kane spent roaming through Ecuador, mainly with the Huaorani tribe, he experienced the traditional self-sufficient way of life that the Huaorani as well as many other indigenous South American tribes have lived for millennia. After visiting colonise areas as well, he reports that Indians who have succumbed to a conversion to Wes tern ways appear much worse off than those who have held to their traditional ways.Of these colonized Huaorani, Kane writes the people were dependent on goods brought in from outside, and many of them had become wage slaves to a culture they could never hope to be truly a part of to a culture that, in fact, considered them bantam more than animals. The convergence of the diverse aspects of capitalism, colonization and conversion to Western ways and Christianity upon the various Indian tribes who are impacted all amount to ethnocide.The fact that such corruption initiated by Western imperialistic drives based on capitalistic gains is subdued going on, only reveals that we have not progressed very far, at least globally speaking, in our path to becoming a more humane society. But the typical modern world citizen doesnt care about any of this and has very little knowledge of the historical European conquests that have transformed spiritually and functionally intact cultures into materially indigent, chaotic and violent third world countries. Most of us are more or less plodding along our own enlightened paths of self-serving materialism.When we do give any devotion to cultures of a lesser material status, we judge and compare their shabby way of life to ours, in which running water, electricity, cars, central heating, air conditioning and 24 min grocery stores are essential. We devalue their modes of living through our own ignorance and ingrained sense of superiority, as we seek to save them, not by helping them to bump their own valued way of life, but by converting them to ours which only reinforces our own paradigm of economic, technological and religious superiority. We frequently fail to realize that not every human being on this planet wants r needs to be hooked into the wave of technological progress with which we are so completely mesmerized. non only does our enchantment with technology threaten our humanity, our society, and our planet, it a lso through our continued pressures upon non-Western, non-technologically-based cultures to convert to the ways of the modern Western world threatens to destroy the few remaining earth-based, indigenous peoples on this planet who would rather not be bothered by us or our materialistic ways. Do we really need to continue to conquer the earth with our capitalism until there is a 7-11 and McDonalds in every corner of the world?Until there are freeways chomping through every area of pristine land? Until all the forests have been chopped down and transformed into urban and industrial sprawl? Cant we fit ourselves with a little respect for the rest of the world? There are still people on this planet who enjoy living in the organic environment of nature, where electricity, labor vehicles, cells phones and I-pods arent a necessary aspect of life. They are able to sound, and thrive, quite well without all the modern accoutrements of modern life that we so desire, and many of them would like to remain as they are.And yet our attitude reveals an inward conviction that we have discovered the way of the future and must deliver this message in force to the rest of the world. Rather than continuing on our present course of a global takeover, we need to ask ourselves what we can learn from non-Westernized cultures that still live in ancient and earth-honoring ways, cultures that we tend to brutalize and greedily destroy. We need to learn to interact with these other cultures respectfully and humanely, allowing them their own way of life and sustenance upon this planet without fussy and coercing our interests and values upon them.Not everyone needs to drive a car on a freeway, to work in an office and live in a house in the city if the 7,000,000,000 human beings now alive on the planet lived like this, our environmental devastation would likely expand exponentially. To evaluate a global conversion of all peoples in all places into an assimilation of our unique modern, technological way of life is stupid, insane and supremely unreasonable. However, like a big, proud, arrogant peacock strutting itself all over the planet, the United States continues making moves to engulf the globe with the gluttony of our own capitalistic enterprises, all the while disregarding nd disrupting the self-regard of other countries, cultures and peoples. Reflecting upon the impact of our very recent civilization upon other, much older, traditional and earth-based civilizations, as well as the planet itself, we should obtain and consider the damages we have done, the violences we have perpetrated, and the miseries we have created We need to move beyond the Christian fantasy that we are a completely good and benign presence on the planet, that we are somehow Gods chosen people with a free pass to do whatever we want regardless of the consequences.We should think about how we can be less ego-centric, and seek to balance our technological advances with tending to the wel l-being of the earth, other cultures and one another. We should consider how to create more harmony in the world, and a little less profit. Indeed, many individuals and organizations are becoming increasingly devoted to a greater consciousness of how to live in ways that are earth friendly. The overall pro-environmental movements are coming to be known as green movements, and they provide good and necessary developments toward a future in which humans could be of greater benefit than detriment to the planet. However, very much work and change remains to be done in this area. atomic number 53 problem inherent with these movements is that when we think about parsimony the planet, or saving the polar bears, we are still thinking abstractly. In truth, the planet was doing just fine before the advent of modern industry and technological society. Save the planet really means Stop the humans from destroying the planet because we are only saving the planet from ourselves. Living our urb an, fast and machine-based lives, very few of us have time, energy or ability to keep gardens, raise livestock, hunt for our sustenance or otherwise live in any kind of experiential symbiosis with the planet. We live in suburban and citified concrete jungles where the animals have become cars, and the trees and forests are now banks, department stores and high rise flatbed complexes.Because we have created our own processed environment of roads, cars, industry, buildings, malls, homes an endless urban sprawl that houses an endless supply of manmade things because we live in a world designed by capitalism, a world of incessant advertising, sales and the desperate, frantic pursuit of material things of production and products a world molded and defined by television, radio and the inveterate bombardment of salesmen we rarely, if ever, experience an intimate connection with the natural world, with the planet we are hoping to save.Sure we can learn all about the planet, discovering the marvels of the earth in science magazines or through viewing compelling video footage of nature, we can learn all about the planet in schools, in laboratories or other second hand means, but until we have a sustained, direct encounter with the earth and nature itself, how can we truly know it, and what will it ever really mean to us? And how few of us will ever accomplish this?Indeed, as it now stands our civilization is composed of a people, and a culture, that have locomote out of nature into man-created worlds based upon the destruction of nature and they call this evolution. Ultimately, its up to us to change the story, to write a new script, to realize who we are, what we have become, and to simply perk up up to the realization of how we want our lives, and the life of our entire planet, to unfold So think about it, and let your thoughts permeate all that you do, for the existence of yourself and every other being around you may depend upon it.Its both funny and sad tha t as soon as people leave their familiar pacifier zone, when they are alone, say at a coffee shop or waiting in line for a bus, they automatically, almost reactively, reach for the cell phone to call or text someone who will reconnect them with the safe and familiar world from which they have momentarily wandered away.The average persons lack of ability, or willingness, to encounter an unknown situation or territory reveals their lack of tolerance for being alone, as well as their lack of curiosity or propensity to simply notice and appreciate their surroundings as if their bodily senses had been nullified into a potential danger zone in which their very stability of self would quickly shard should they let go a little, observe and potentially interact with the unfolding world around them.Yes, weve learned to live in little bubbles of safety which swerve us off from our fellow-humans we no longer live in the actual world, but in our own self-created worlds, via the latest form of technology. I suspect that our modern sense of security has been entrained to operate in collusion with these technological devices that have slyly entrapped our minds even as they have offered us incredible new possibilities.Our opinion on new and ever-advancing technologies, such as the mobile phone which in a few short years has also become a mobile photo album, mobile internet, camera, video machine and multi-media entertainment center has developed into quite a habit, an unconscious addiction that is shaping the very nature of our personalities, both personal and collective, and even, God forbid, our souls. What need have we, the general public, for an imagination when so many limitlessly stimulating devices are available in our world?Who needs an inner world at all when the outer world of our own creations has become so evocative, so seducing, so ever-demanding, evasive and totalitarian? We are continually fill up with advertisements and societal pressures to acquire ne w technological distractions and modes of external stimulus. Living under such conditions, how is it possible for us to maintain or cultivate much of an inner world, or a soul, whatsoever?The underlying message of our media is commercial in enforcing the demands of commerce upon us, we are defined primarily as consumers, persuaded not to think for ourselves, but to join in the latest collective frenzy of technological adventures that continually reinterpret the purpose of our lives. This never ending flood of media proclamations, while appearing as a material liberation, serves as a psychological oppression of the individual soul. Capitalism sells new versions of reality that may have nothing to do with ones own true needs or sensibilities.However, it is the advertisers job to convince us otherwise. So far they are doing a pretty good job The natural world, the earth itself the air, the trees, the vast realms of animals, plants, oceans, deserts and mountains are increasingly losing meaning and value in the self-hypnotized, narcissistic lives of mechanized human beings. Although it is certainly an abomination of our essential heritage, we are ever-entrained to focus less and less on the natural world in which we live, and of which we are but one aspect lest we forget and more and more to focus on the world as fashioned through the minds and hands f men. Its sad indeed when we ignore what is right before our eyes, i. e. our actual surrounding environment, and instead remain culled to a collective techno-vision of the ideal man-made life. Its also sad when we ignore those human beings who are standing right in front of us because wed prefer to text or talk with someone miles away, when we must remain overly-attached to those we know because weve lost our human capacity for interrelationship with our expanded world of fellow citizens who we now dismiss as strangers.Our advance in technology has engendered a compensating inversion in our capacity for commiserati on and community which is to say, the further we develop our technology, the less we appear to maintain the qualities of a loving, caring and attentive human society. Being aware in the mystery of the present moment, tolerating the unknown, and tolerating states of non-stimulation is the first phase in moving towards a more attuned state of openness and potential interaction with the actual, non-virtual, world around us.However, we have been so instruct by a perpetual bombardment of electronic stimuli radio, television, computers, video games, mobile phones/entertainment centers, etc that it has become difficult, albeit unappealing, for us to re-focus our attention on our actual physical, natural environment. A parallel outcome of our desensitization to the physical, natural world in which we live, is the subsequent degradation of our ecology, which entails our lack of emphasis or awareness on its living/ quick/fragile/organic nature.The danger of this, as many of us recognize, is potentially catastrophic as we create and live in an increasingly human-made and virtual reality wherein we believe we are safer, happier, more satisfied, etc we also increasingly ignore the actual and natural reality in which we are encompassed, and risk the extinction of the environment through the excessive pollution, raiding and deforestation of the planet that we have witnessed since the rise of the industrial-technological age.The degradation of the natural world is problematic in many ways. Firstly, it appears to be morally and ethically wrong at least to those of us whose ethics and morals outweigh our imperialistic drives to destructively impact the earth, its ecosystems, i. e. rivers, oceans and forests, as well as animals, plants, trees, etc. One might ask, What right have we humans to destroy the earth, simply for our own benefit? Is this not selfish and unnecessary? Many of us have asked this question, though it seems that the overall progress of our technologica lly based capitalism remains unwilling to curtail its invasions and usurpations of nature, or to halt its path of destruction for the sake of morals or ethics. Where the dollar bill is concerned, questions of right and wrong become thin and ineffectual, nearly meaningless. Secondly, the degradation of the natural environment is increasingly affecting the balance of the planet itself, which in turn contaminates our own quality of life.For a thorough overview of how human technology is damaging the planet, one has only to search through a plethora of books, TV specials, or movies on this topic (i. e. An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore). I will here mention only a few ways in which planetary degradation affects human life. In a recent trip to Lima, Peru I learned that Peruvians predominantly drive older used cars, from the 80s or 70s, which emit high levels of visible exhaust fumes making the air both toxic and putrid to breathe.Driving around town there is often no escape from these fu mes which pour out of the car just in front of you. The situation is just as bad in many other developing third world countries around the globe. Even here in the United States, where we have increasingly stricter emissions controls on our vehicles, the air quality in some cities is very poor, and on certain days people are advised to avoid going out of doors, or allowing their children to play outside at all.In many countries, air pollution is severe and debilitating, and only getting worse. In addition to increasing the risk of respiratory disease, the eroding of the ozone layer has also increased the risk of skin cancer, and its become customary to slather on gobs of sunscreen lotion before going outside on a successful day for any length of time. Industrial pollution has made our water supplies dirty, so they are zapped with chlorine, making our water not really enjoyable, or many would say, healthy to drink.As for our food, as genetic engineering takes hold, what we eat become s increasingly tasteless and less nutritious. Although these are only a very few examples of the many problems made by technology, there is no denying that the degradation of the natural world leads to our own degradation. The third major impact of the degradation of nature is spiritual. As we become less attuned to the world of nature, which is gradually breaking down, our inherent connection to the earth dissipates.We become less the caretakers of the earth, or participants in Her splendor of glory, and moreover the survivors of a man-made final solution inflicted upon nature. We rationalize our disconnect from nature those of us who are aware of it with the heralding of a new age of technological transcendence. In comparison with all our own dreaded discoveries, inventions and developments, we cannot believe that the earth is all that important. How can a handful of dirt compare to the glory of an I-phone?Our attitudes reveal a consensual belief that we are superior to and abo ve the earth as also evidenced by our scientific investigations into creating hospitable conditions on other planets, as well as expanded, city-size space displace in which we could begin to populate the greater universe, where we would, even more so, live in human-made, virtual reality realms. The bigger question is whether our spirits can survive or thrive in states of stark disconnection from the earth, our origin and planetary source of beingThis sort of fantastic and futuristic evolution is in line with our reigning religion of Christianity, in which our sinful earthbound lives are to be potentially transformed through belief in Christ, when, upon the moment of our death, we are to move high into the heavens, into a cloud-like dimension above and beyond all the messy entanglements of this planet earth. With such a cosmo-vision, such a context of the goal of life, its no wonder the sanctity of the earth has lost its power to impel our actions.It seems only the portended thr eat of our own extinction will suffice to encourage us to behave differently. For if we are only to inhabit this earth for such a brief span of time until our transcendence into a perfect eternity in another dimension then whats the big deal if we just abuse Her until were gone, because in the grand scheme of things She doesnt matter much anyways. Christianity also teaches that, of all the creatures and life-forms upon this planet, only human beings have souls that can be saved, and thus make the transmigration beyond a mortal death into an immortal and eternal fter-life. Since, in the Christian view, nothing else upon this planet has a soul, or is capable of redemption, we justify our own paramount importance, and it becomes completely plausible to view all things as merely our own resources. In this way, we lose a perspective of value and veneration for the natural world around us while worshipping our own agendas. It becomes evident that many areas of our lives our economy, ou r technology and industry, our religion, and our general philosophy of living depict our own implicit superiority complex over the natural world of creation.And yet, by and by, we get glimpses of the truth that it is impossible for humanity to become superior to nature, because we are really an intrinsic part of the earth which we seek to dominate and control. In actuality, the world of nature is indeed superior to humankind, as we are merely one aspect of its grand panorama. However, we continue to ignore our interconnectedness with nature, our true identity as an outgrowth or expression of nature, and behave as if we have the right and ability to continue dominating the earth without eventually destroying ourselves.But what goes around comes around, and sooner or later you get what you give, or to put it in technological terms you input what you output. Why have we continued on in this, less than intelligent, manner? You could say that we modern-day humans are simply dumb and in different, which is partially true from a holistic perspective. But beneath that we are really out of control, so fascinated by our own invented civilization that we fail to recognize the greater organic and historical context in which we live.Over the past 500 years or so, the peoples of Europe have invaded, conquered, colonized and converted virtually every other continent, people and culture upon the planet were currently working steadfast on the Middle East with our imperialistic inquisitions, our Christianity and our capitalism. In the words of Martin Prechtel, author of Secrets Of The Talking Jaguar, and an initiate of the Mayan shamanic mysteries Over the last two or three centuries, a heartless culture-crushing mentality has incremented its progress on the earth, devouring all peoples, nature, imagination, and spiritual knowledge.Like a big mechanized slug, it has left behind a flat, homogenized steak of civilization wherever it passed. Every human on this earth African, Asian, European, Islanders, or from the Americas has ancestors who at some point in their history had their stories, rituals, ingenuity, language and lifeways taken away, enslaved, banned, exploited, twisted or destroyed by this force. Our modern technological way of life is a vast and dramatic change from the vastly more earth-friendly modes of human existence that preceded this rapid global development for thousands of years.It is a sad and unpopular fact that, as Western civilization has progressed, countless other civilizations have regressed, have indeed been ravaged and undone by the coercion of our own ideas and powers upon them. To this day, we either disregard their suffering and continue on our own path to global domination, or we view them through the eyes of sympathetic charity, regarding ourselves, our own culture, as the superior and dominant people who will now help, aide and assist these less fortunate people whom we devastated in the first place to acquire the mo des of our own elevated survival and sustenance.The deceptive hypocrisy of our impact upon, and subsequent response to, third world countries is confounded by our own apparent lack of responsibility for our actions, both past and present, that debilitate these people. For instance, in the countries of Central & South America, our oil production facilities lead to massive destruction of both the land and the lives of the indigenous peoples. In the mid 1990? s, author Joe Kane documented the horrific impacts of corporate oil companies upon native cultures and the pristine Amazonian rainforest of Ecuador in his superbly written book, Savages.In the book, Kane describes the struggle of one of the last remaining indigenous tribes the Huaorani who consider themselves to have not been conquered by modern Western culture, against the impending invasion of corporate oil. Referencing his colleague Judith Kimerling from her book Amazon Crude, Kane states In 1967 Texaco discovered commercial oil in the Oriente the Ecuadorian rainforest. In 1972 it completed a 312-mile pipeline from the Oriente to Ecuadors Pacific coast. From its inception until just 1989, the Texaco pipeline had ruptured at least twenty seven times, spilling 16. 8 million gallons of raw crude most of it into the Orientes delicate web of rivers, creeks and lagoons. As a witness himself to a colossal oil spill into the native Ecuadorian rainforest, Kane writes, While I was in Tonampare a valve in an oil well near the Napo broke, or was left open, and for two days and a night raw crude streamed into the river at least 21,000 gallons and perhaps as many as 80,000, creating a slick that stretched from bank to bank for forty miles. Due to this oil spill, a state of emergency was declared downstream in both Peru and Brazil, although, according to Kane, the oil company responsible for the spill disregarded the incident and did nothing to improve the situation. While in Ecuador, Kane visited various Huaorani communities and received further firsthand reports of extensive and extreme contamination, via oil spills, of their water supplies resulting in unruly health epidemics, severe illnesses and deaths.However, the problems of oil drilling extend beyond the awful impacts upon Huaorani and Indian health in general, as the settlements made by the oil companies result in drastic disruption, deviation and desecration of traditional Indian culture. It is a complicated process, because the imperialistic thrust of big oil coincides with all sorts of modern Western byproducts including colonization, conversion to Christianity, and re-education of native Indians in which no element of Huaorani culture was allowed to enter the curriculum. This enforced process of acculturation to Western ways results in the obliteration of the value, the history, and the very existence of traditional culture for all Indians affected. During the months that Kane spent roaming through Ecuador, mainly with the Huaor ani tribe, he experienced the traditional self-sufficient way of life that the Huaorani as well as many other indigenous South American tribes have lived for millennia. After visiting colonized areas as well, he reports that Indians who have succumbed to a conversion to Western ways appear much worse off than those who have held to their traditional ways.Of these colonized Huaorani, Kane writes the people were dependent on goods brought in from outside, and many of them had become wage slaves to a culture they could never hope to be truly a part of to a culture that, in fact, considered them little more than animals. The convergence of the diverse aspects of capitalism, colonization and conversion to Western ways and Christianity upon the various Indian tribes who are impacted all amount to ethnocide.The fact that such corruption initiated by Western imperialistic drives based on capitalistic gains is still going on, only reveals that we have not progressed very far, at least globally speaking, in our path to becoming a more humane society. But the typical modern world citizen doesnt care about any of this and has very little knowledge of the historical European conquests that have transformed spiritually and functionally intact cultures into materially indigent, chaotic and violent third world countries. Most of us are more or less plodding along our own enlightened paths of self-serving materialism.When we do give any consideration to cultures of a lesser material status, we judge and compare their shabby way of life to ours, in which running water, electricity, cars, central heating, air conditioning and 24 hour grocery stores are essential. We devalue their modes of living through our own ignorance and ingrained sense of superiority, as we seek to save them, not by helping them to regain their own valued way of life, but by converting them to ours which only reinforces our own paradigm of economic, technological and religious superiority.We frequent ly fail to realize that not every human being on this planet wants or needs to be hooked into the wave of technological progress with which we are so completely mesmerized. Not only does our enchantment with technology threaten our humanity, our society, and our planet, it also through our continued pressures upon non-Western, non-technologically-based cultures to convert to the ways of the modern Western world threatens to destroy the few remaining earth-based, indigenous peoples on this planet who would rather not be bothered by us or our materialistic ways.Do we really need to continue to conquer the earth with our capitalism until there is a 7-11 and McDonalds in every corner of the world? Until there are freeways chomping through every area of pristine land? Until all the forests have been chopped down and transformed into urban and industrial sprawl? Cant we contain ourselves with a little respect for the rest of the world? There are still people on this planet who enjoy liv ing in the organic environment of nature, where electricity, motor vehicles, cells phones and I-pods arent a necessary aspect of life.They are able to survive, and thrive, quite well without all the modern accoutrements of modern life that we so desire, and many of them would like to remain as they are. And yet our attitude reveals an inner conviction that we have discovered the way of the future and must deliver this message in force to the rest of the world. Rather than continuing on our present course of a global takeover, we need to ask ourselves what we can learn from non-Westernized cultures that still live in ancient and earth-honoring ways, cultures that we tend to brutalize and greedily destroy.We need to learn to interact with these other cultures respectfully and humanely, allowing them their own way of life and sustenance upon this planet without interfering and coercing our interests and values upon them. Not everyone needs to drive a car on a freeway, to work in an off ice and live in a house in the city if the 7,000,000,000 human beings now alive on the planet lived like this, our environmental devastation would likely expand exponentially.To expect a global conversion of all peoples in all places into an assimilation of our unique modern, technological way of life is stupid, insane and supremely unreasonable. However, like a big, proud, arrogant peacock strutting itself all over the planet, the United States continues making moves to engulf the globe with the gluttony of our own capitalistic enterprises, all the while disregarding and disrupting the dignity of other countries, cultures and peoples.Reflecting upon the impact of our very recent civilization upon other, much older, traditional and earth-based civilizations, as well as the planet itself, we should notice and consider the damages we have done, the violences we have perpetrated, and the miseries we have created We need to move beyond the Christian fantasy that we are a completely go od and benign presence on the planet, that we are somehow Gods chosen people with a free pass to do whatever we want regardless of the consequences.We should think about how we can be less ego-centric, and seek to balance our technological advances with tending to the well-being of the earth, other cultures and one another. We should consider how to create more harmony in the world, and a little less profit. Indeed, many individuals and organizations are becoming increasingly devoted to a greater consciousness of how to live in ways that are earth friendly. The overall pro-environmental movements are coming to be known as green movements, and they provide good and necessary developments toward a future in which humans could be of greater benefit than detriment to the planet. However, very much work and change remains to be done in this area. One problem inherent with these movements is that when we think about saving the planet, or saving the polar bears, we are still thinking abstr actly. In truth, the planet was doing just fine before the advent of modern industry and technological society. Save the planet really means Stop the humans from destroying the planet because we are only saving the planet from ourselves. Living our urban, fast-paced and machine-based lives, very few of us have time, energy or ability to keep gardens, raise livestock, hunt for our sustenance or otherwise live in any kind of experiential symbiosis with the planet. We live in suburban and citified concrete jungles where the animals have become cars, and the trees and forests are now banks, department stores and high rise apartment complexes.Because we have created our own processed environment of roads, cars, industry, buildings, malls, homes an endless urban sprawl that houses an endless supply of manmade things because we live in a world designed by capitalism, a world of incessant advertising, sales and the desperate, frantic pursuit of material things of production and products a world molded and defined by television, radio and the chronic bombardment of salesmen we rarely, if ever, experience an intimate connection with the natural world, with the planet we are hoping to save.Sure we can learn all about the planet, discovering the marvels of the earth in science magazines or through viewing compelling video footage of nature, we can learn all about the planet in schools, in laboratories or other second hand means, but until we have a sustained, direct encounter with the earth and nature itself, how can we truly know it, and what will it ever really mean to us? And how few of us will ever accomplish this?Indeed, as it now stands our civilization is composed of a people, and a culture, that have moved out of nature into man-created worlds based upon the destruction of nature and they call this evolution. Ultimately, its up to us to change the story, to write a new script, to realize who we are, what we have become, and to simply wake up to the realizatio n of how we want our lives, and the life of our entire planet, to unfold So think about it, and let your thoughts permeate all that you do, for the existence of yourself and every other being around you may depend upon it.Its both funny and sad that as soon as people leave their familiar comfort zone, when they are alone, say at a coffee shop or waiting in line for a bus, they automatically, almost reactively, reach for the cell phone to call or text someone who will reconnect them with the safe and familiar world from which they have momentarily wandered away.The average persons lack of ability, or willingness, to encounter an unknown situation or territory reveals their lack of tolerance for being alone, as well as their lack of curiosity or propensity to simply notice and appreciate their surroundings as if their bodily senses had been nullified into a potential danger zone in which their very stability of self would quickly fragment should they let go a little, observe and pot entially interact with the unfolding world around them.Yes, weve learned to live in little bubbles of safety which cut us off from our fellow-humans we no longer live in the actual world, but in our own self-created worlds, via the latest form of technology. I suspect that our modern sense of security has been entrained to operate in collusion with these technological devices that have slyly entrapped our minds even as they have offered us incredible new possibilities.Our reliance on new and ever-advancing technologies, such as the mobile phone which in a few short years has also become a mobile photo album, mobile internet, camera, video machine and multi-media entertainment center has developed into quite a habit, an unconscious addiction that is shaping the very nature of our personalities, both personal and collective, and even, God forbid, our souls. What need have we, the general public, for an imagination when so many limitlessly stimulating devices are available in our wo rld?Who needs an inner world at all when the outer world of our own creations has become so evocative, so seducing, so ever-demanding, evasive and totalitarian? We are continually inundated with advertisements and societal pressures to acquire new technological distractions and modes of external stimulus. Living under such conditions, how is it possible for us to maintain or cultivate much of an inner world, or a soul, whatsoever?The underlying message of our media is commercial in enforcing the demands of commerce upon us, we are defined primarily as consumers, persuaded not to think for ourselves, but to join in the latest collective frenzy of technological adventures that continually reinterpret the purpose of our lives. This never ending flood of media proclamations, while appearing as a material liberation, serves as a psychological oppression of the individual soul. Capitalism sells new versions of reality that may have nothing to do with ones own true needs or sensibilities. However, it is the advertisers job to convince us otherwise.So far they are doing a pretty good job The natural world, the earth itself the air, the trees, the vast realms of animals, plants, oceans, deserts and mountains are increasingly losing meaning and value in the self-hypnotized, narcissistic lives of mechanized human beings. Although it is certainly an abomination of our essential heritage, we are ever-entrained to focus less and less on the natural world in which we live, and of which we are but one aspect lest we forget and more and more to focus on the world as fashioned through the minds and hands of men.Its sad indeed when we ignore what is right before our eyes, i. e. our actual surrounding environment, and instead remain culled to a collective techno-vision of the ideal man-made life. Its also sad when we ignore those human beings who are standing right in front of us because wed prefer to text or talk with someone miles away, when we must remain overly-attached to those we know because weve lost our human capacity for interrelationship with our expanded world of fellow citizens who we now dismiss as strangers.Our advance in technology has engendered a compensating inversion in our capacity for compassion and community which is to say, the further we develop our technology, the less we appear to maintain the qualities of a loving, caring and attentive human society. Being aware in the mystery of the present moment, tolerating the unknown, and tolerating states of non-stimulation is the first phase in moving towards a more attuned state of openness and potential interaction with the actual, non-virtual, world around us.However, we have been so conditioned by a perpetual bombardment of electronic stimuli radio, television, computers, video games, mobile phones/entertainment centers, etc that it has become difficult, albeit unappealing, for us to re-focus our attention on our actual physical, natural environment. A parallel outcome of our dese nsitization to the physical, natural world in which we live, is the subsequent degradation of our ecology, which entails our lack of emphasis or awareness on its living/breathing/fragile/organic nature.The danger of this, as many of us recognize, is potentially catastrophic as we create and live in an increasingly human-made and virtual reality wherein we believe we are safer, happier, more satisfied, etc we also increasingly ignore the actual and natural reality in which we are encompassed, and risk the extinction of the environment through the excessive pollution, raiding and deforestation of the planet that we have witnessed since the rise of the industrial-technological age.The degradation of the natural world is problematic in many ways. Firstly, it appears to be morally and ethically wrong at least to those of us whose ethics and morals outweigh our imperialistic drives to destructively impact the earth, its ecosystems, i. e. rivers, oceans and forests, as well as animals, plants, trees, etc. One might ask, What right have we humans to destroy the earth, simply for our own benefit? Is this not selfish and unnecessary? Many of us have asked this question, though it seems that the overall progress of our technologically based capitalism remains unwilling to curtail its invasions and usurpations of nature, or to halt its path of destruction for the sake of morals or ethics. Where the dollar bill is concerned, questions of right and wrong become thin and ineffectual, nearly meaningless. Secondly, the degradation of the natural environment is increasingly affecting the balance of the planet itself, which in turn contaminates our own quality of life.For a thorough overview of how human technology is damaging the planet, one has only to search through a plethora of books, TV specials, or movies on this topic (i. e. An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore). I will here mention only a few ways in which planetary degradation affects human life. In a recent trip to L ima, Peru I learned that Peruvians predominantly drive older used cars, from the 80s or 70s, which emit high levels of visible exhaust fumes making the air both toxic and putrid to breathe.Driving around town there is often no escape from these fumes which pour out of the car just in front of you. The situation is just as bad in many other developing third world countries around the globe. Even here in the United States, where we have increasingly stricter emissions controls on our vehicles, the air quality in some cities is very poor, and on certain days people are advised to avoid going out of doors, or allowing their children to play outside at all.In many countries, air pollution is severe and debilitating, and only getting worse. In addition to increasing the risk of respiratory disease, the eroding of the ozone layer has also increased the risk of skin cancer, and its become customary to slather on gobs of sunscreen lotion before going outside on a sunny day for any length of time. Industrial pollution has made our water supplies dirty, so they are zapped with chlorine, making our water not really enjoyable, or many would say, healthy to drink.As for our food, as genetic engineering takes hold, what we eat becomes increasingly tasteless and less nutritious. Although these are only a very few examples of the many problems made by technology, there is no denying that the degradation of the natural world leads to our own degradation. The third major impact of the degradation of nature is spiritual. As we become less attuned to the world of nature, which is gradually breaking down, our inherent connection to the earth dissipates.We become less the caretakers of the earth, or participants in Her splendor of glory, and moreover the survivors of a man-made holocaust inflicted upon nature. We rationalize our disconnect from nature those of us who are aware of it with the heralding of a new age of technological transcendence. In comparison with all our own amaz ing discoveries, inventions and developments, we cannot believe that the earth is all that important. How can a handful of dirt compare to the glory of an I-phone?Our attitudes reveal a consensual belief that we are superior to and above the earth as also evidenced by our scientific investigations into creating hospitable conditions on other planets, as well as expanded, city-size space stations in which we could begin to populate the greater universe, where we would, even more so, live in human-made, virtual reality realms. The bigger question is whether our spirits can survive or thrive in states of stark disconnection from the earth, our origin and planetary source of beingThis sort of fantastic and futuristic evolution is in line with our reigning religion of Christianity, in which our sinful earthbound lives are to be potentially transformed through belief in Christ, when, upon the moment of our death, we are to ascend high into the heavens, into a cloud-like dimension above and beyond all the messy entanglements of this planet earth. With such a cosmo-vision, such a context of the goal of life, its no wonder the sanctity of the earth has lost its power to impel our actions.It seems only the portended threat of our own extinction will suffice to encourage us to behave differently. For if we are only to inhabit this earth for such a brief span of time until our transcendence into a perfect eternity in another dimension then whats the big deal if we just abuse Her until were gone, because in the grand scheme of things She doesnt matter much anyways. Christianity also teaches that, of all the creatures and life-forms upon this planet, only human beings have souls that can be saved, and thus make the transmigration beyond a mortal d