Renewable Energy- a waste of money?

The solar company Solyndra received more than $500 million in loan guarantees from the Obama administration.  This company was going to be the answer for an affordable solar panel that was cheap and convenient.  Solyndra was creating jobs of the future according to Vice-President Joe Biden.  But it didn’t quite work out like that.

The price of silicon panels plummeted making Solyndra’s product uncompetitive in its market.  The company spent all of its money trying to stay afloat and declared bankruptcy and had to fire 1100 workers.  Many think that the failure of Solyndra shows that the government isn’t investing their money wisely.  But there is little evidence that the money invested in the company was a reckless decision; there was a process that involved 3000 outside experts that led to the green light. 

Many venture capitalists say that of the companies that they fund they expect a third of them to fail and that when a failure happens it’s just a part of business.  The Department of Energy has given out nearly $20 billion in loan guarantees to renewable energy companies and the only company that has defaulted was Solyndra.  Personally, I think that that is a great statistic.  I know people are always hoping things fail in order to prove a point.  But the venture capitalists are right when they say it’s all just apart of business.  Things are going to succeed and things are going to fail.  So the fact that only one tiny part of the $20 billion has gone down the drain tells me that the people in the Department of Energy are investing their money wisely.      

Obviously global warming is coming and it's inevitable if we don't change our ways.  Many like to think that renewable energy is a waste of money and time when we could be saving the world in other ways.  But I think that this article needed to be shared to show that the money isn't going to waste.  

Stories That Stand Out

He was Mr. Cha-cha-cha.  He was my grandpa.  In the past week I learned more about him than I would have ever thought.  As we prepared to say our final goodbyes, more and more stories were brought up about his life that I had never heard.  Those stories are the ones that stand out to me.  My grandpa had a signature cha-cha-cha dance but I never knew he could tango or waltz.  I knew he was a veteran of World War II and spent most of his time in London but I didn’t know he was Agent 301 in the criminal investigation department.  He was always whistling a tune but I never knew he used to play saxophone in a jazz band.  These stories were forgotten for a very long time and never shared due to his aggressive Alzheimer’s.  Family stories should be the stories that stand out.  He wasn’t a superhero and he didn’t have a million bucks but he had a great sense of humor and was always caring and kind.  The memories I have are ones that I’ll never forget and will make great stories in the future.  The most recent memories are of playing blocks and doing coloring books together.  They maybe aren’t the most exciting of stories but those are the ones that stand out to me.  These stories are the ones that will forever make me laugh, make me cry and make me remember what a truly great man he was.  These are some of the real world stories that will always stand out to me. 

A Watchful Eye

So You Think Money Can Buy Happiness...?

Skiing or the Caribbean? Well…we went skiing in the Swiss Alps for Christmas break so how about Bora Bora for spring break. Sometimes it feels like everyone always has more than you. Many people believe that the more money you have the better, happier, more perfect life you lead. Having more money looks better on the outside. Clothes, they have the best. Accessories, so many options. They can live anywhere in any home; usually there is more than one. Being able to buy a new car at the drop of a hat, again, usually more than one. Brand names and high prices is what the rich live for. Is beauty on the outside really happiness on the inside? To the average person living a modest lifestyle, the life of the rich looks easy. Perhaps their bias comes from jealousy, envy or ignorance. From their bias comes dislike toward the wealthy that may actually be nice people. There is a tendency to make rude remarks, jokes or comments about what the rich are perceived to have. Do most wealthy people have material items? Yes. I understand that the outward appearance of the wealthy makes it seem that there are never any problems and life is perfect. I also understand that being wealthy doesn’t make someone automatically good, bad, happy, rude, etc. You can’t like everyone but you don’t know who someone truly is until you get to know them. Why let where someone lives and what he or she wears determine what potentially lies on the inside.

Best Monster of All Time

At first glance, Carrie White appears to be just a high school girl. She’s very shy, has no friends and mother who can only be described as crazy. After being harassed in the gym locker rooms by her classmates, Carrie becomes so enraged that she shatters a light bulb… with her mind. As if her life couldn’t get any worse, when she’s sent to the principles office, he calls her Cassie. She flips the ashtray off of his desk, again by just using her mind. With the new-found power of telepathy, Carrie is ready to pay back all of the people who overlooked her before.
The movie Carrie is based on the novel by Stephen King written in 1974. Just two years later, the novel was made into the movie directed by Brian De Palma staring Sissy Spacek as the ever-haunting Carrie.
Carrie is asked to the prom by the popular and athletic, Tom. Hoping that someone was finally being genuine, she said yes.
She is voted prom queen and Tom, prom king. When she went up to accept the crown, the popular girls dump a bucket of pig’s blood on her. That was Carrie White’s breaking point. Chaos ensues. Electrocution. Falling rafters. A fire. Telepathically blocking all entrances in the gym, she killed every single person. And she doesn’t even flinch. Carrie walks home still covered in blood.
What makes Carrie White such a great monster? The fact that she could be anyone makes me terrified. She doesn’t need a mask, a costume or anything to be scary. The wide-eyed look she gets on her face right before she causes drama isn’t an angry look. She always remains surprisingly calm never giving away what is about to happen. The kids at Bates High School never saw it coming. Personally, I felt for Carrie. The poor girl had a horrible time at school and a horrible home life. By the time she’s killing all of her classmates, you’re on her side. You want to see her take revenge on all of these people who have caused her so much pain pain. Carrie White will forever haunt me, which makes her the best monster of all time.

Femme Fatale

Phyllis Dietrichson is what I picture as the classic “femme fatale”. Throughout the movie, she uses her feminine ways to seduce Walter Neff into helping her kill her husband. In the scene where the two first meet, Dietrichson is standing above Neff on the second floor with nothing but a towel on. Standing above him symbolized that she was superior to him from the start. And she used her charming personality to talk Neff into helping her kill Mr. Dietrichson.
I believe that Phyllis was the smartest person in the film. She knew how to work with what she had. Walter Neff quickly falls for Dietrichson. The way she came to him in his apartment and swooned over him in the short amount of time they had known each other should have been a tip-off to Neff that she was a little crazy. He had been working in the insurance business long enough to know how to kill Mr. Dietrichson properly and he should have spotted what Phyllis was trying to do. He was too quick to trust her and her intentions.

Fate, Football & Free Will

At the beginning of this section Harvey plays football and baseball with great drive to be the best. But by the end, he has quit all sports and is now spending his free time in his parent’s shop. Harvey exercises his free will in choosing to quit all of these sports. He could have stuck with them and worked harder at becoming better, but chose to quit the minute it got hard. In choosing to quit sports, he took a road that in the end he may not enjoy as much because he now has to spend all of his time at the dreaded store. He said it himself on page 14 that “if [he] didn’t think [he] could get praise from participating in a sport [he’d] refuse to play.” He quit the baseball team in 5th grade because the pitcher could pitch faster than he could hit. He “figured” he wouldn’t be a star so he decided to give up the sport. Quitting for Harvey would be a million times easier than working hard to get what he wanted. If the sport didn’t come easy to him, he was done with it. In eighth grade he decided to go out for the football team, but found that the year he took off because of his bar mitzvah may have caused him to fall behind in ability. That year in Harvey’s mind he felt that the coach didn’t like him and didn’t play him so he quit. In the ninth grade, Harvey switched positions from fullback to guard deciding that guard was a simpler position for him to play. He had an acceptable year. The following year, he tried out for a starting guard position. Another boy who Harvey thought was not as good as him was put in the starting position. Harvey’s anger got the best of him here because the other player got the position Harvey coveted. This time Harvey was actually trying to be part of a team; he worked harder but found little reward when he was benched again. When he wasn’t in the starting position, he quit, but this time for good. This shows his ambivalence with regard to commitment. But Harvey thinks that wrestling might be a good sport for him, but before he even gives it a chance he psyches himself out because he claims to “expect so much from himself.” Does he really expect that much from himself? Or does he know that he will eventually just quit in the end. Does he use fate to excuse his quitting.