I recently read a post, about someone coming to the realization of how detrimental gas cars are to the environment. For a long time I have been a strong advocate for the environment, since I believe that it is our job to take care of the planet we live on. Especially since it is to our benefit that we take care of this planet.

It is no secret that cars are a large emitter of greenhouse gases, and throughout the years we have made some alternative solutions for cars. Most famously electric cars have been viewed as the ultimate solution to greenhouse gas emissions. With electric cars it becomes much more environmentally friendly to drive a car. The only issue with this is that electric cars are still out of the price range for a majority of people. This will likely change by 2025 since the EU passed a law stating that all new cars must be electric. This will drive down the price of older electric cars allowing lower income people to purchase one. Another change is that gas cars have become more efficient. This means that less gas is needed for the car to move. This severely cuts down on how much a person needs to spend on gas and on how much greenhouse gas is emitted from the car. 

The other alternative that has been gaining traction is the improvement of public transportation such as; busses, trains, bikes, etc. Recently a lot of start up companies have been using this idea to make it more accessible to rent a scooter or bike by the hour. This cheap option is widely available all over the US. Some cities have also participated in this by sponsoring their own cheap bike rental system. Other places have also created a more frequent and accessible bus and train routes. Los Angeles for example has been building new railroads for the past decade in order to cut down on traffic, and to make cheap and efficient travel easier to access. This increase in public transportation, I believe, will be the most effective way to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This is also the most accessible path for people of any income bracket. Furthermore, it would be widely beneficial to people living in any place, since it makes travelling easier and it also creates more jobs.

Another alternative that has been widely used by anyone who has the service available to them is ridesharing. This startup idea disrupted the taxi market, by creating a wide pool of drivers for a low cost. While the business practices of these groups are questionable, it is also a way for people to lower their carbon footprint. By using this service people are often carpooling, allowing for multiple people to use a car instead of one. This lowers the overall emissions, and it gives people the ability of a more personalized route that public transportation would not be able to give.

Transportation is a large sector that is creating greenhouse gas emissions, but there are numerous ways that people can lower their carbon footprint. Whether it’s biking or carpooling there are a variety of options available to us in this day and age.

Here is the link to the post I read if you are interested:

Post #5 Climate Change

As an engineer I frequently am excited about new trends and currently at my new job I am working on a new innovative 3D printer. While I can’t get into the details of the current printer I am designing, I would love to talk about how far we have come with 3D printers, and where we will be going in the near future. This is such an exciting field, that I am constantly amazed by how far we have come in such a short amount of time.

3D printing started out extremely basic. Mechanically, the machines could only print out plastic (PLA being the most common). While this did have a variety of uses, it was still pretty limited. Plastic while versatile could only do so much, since people’s creativity sometimes needs to be expressed in other materials. Plastic 3D printing has become extremely accessible in the past decade. Previously it cost a fortune to own or even use a printer, but now you can purchase one for the same price as a regular printer. Some libraries in the states have printers, that you could use for a very low price, schools also often have 3D printers available for students to use. 

While it has gotten more accessible to 3D print, there is now a variety of materials that one could use due to the rapid innovation that has occured. One notable achievement, is how scientists have been able to 3D print organs. While these have yet to be placed inside of a person, it proposes an exciting new frontier in the world of medicine. The machine works by putting down layers of cells. The ability to have organs being easily accessible could change a lot in the organ transplant industry. Currently, we don’t have a large enough supply to meet the demand of organs needed by patients. This not only changes organ transplants, but doctors have been using 3D printing to print medicine, prosthetics, medical instruments, etc. It is safe to say that the introduction of 3D printing could help a lot of people.

Another major frontier in 3D printing is food. In the past decade there has been a notable rise in how much people care about global warming. People are becoming more conscious of their eating habits, by either cutting down or eliminating meat from their diets. 3D printing has stepped in since it has the ability of creating meat without the greenhouse gas emissions.  Whether the meat is made with animal cells or not, this is an incredible step for curving the consumption of livestock across the globe. The attempts to create vegan or vegetarian meat with a 3D printer is interesting since the printer can help give the mixture a more muscular texture that is often not seen in alternative meat products. This will be interesting to see as these products are expected to hit the market in a year.

3D printing has also been able to curb the homelessness epidemic that many cities and countries face. There is a company that has been 3D printing homes in parts of Mexico and the US. The homes take up to 2 days to be printed, and about a week to be assembled. These homes are incredibly cheap at $10,000. And the company plans to bring the cost down to $4000. This fast turnaround and the customizability of the homes, could soom help fix the housing crisis that is being seen all over. The application of this technology is endless, and it could change the lives of many. 

3D printing is such an incredible technological achievement that has the potential to change everyone’s life for the better. The endless applications are at our fingertips, and the accessibility of the machines allow for anyone to express themselves.

If you guys saw my post from last week, you would know that I was pretty sick for a couple of weeks. I just read a blog post that talked about a different point of view on illness, which I thought was interesting.

The post follows a non-human and their encounter with disease, a completely foreign concept to them. They talk about how they are so grateful that their home plant has no “silent killers” like disease. This point made me think about the extensive network of research that has been created over the past several decades to combat these “silent killers”.

While it may seem bleak whenever there is a new outbreak or new disease, it is important to think of how far humanities medical expertise has come. It is always devastating when there is a pandemic, but death rates have significantly lowered in just a few decades. The introduction of vaccines was a turning point in our ability to prevent and fight back against diseases that had plagued humanity for decades. In the past century vaccines became so powerful that we were able to eradicate smallpox, and lower the number of people who were affected by a variety of diseases such as whooping cough and chickenpox. 

There is also always new technology and advances within the field that leads to impressive results and discoveries. This year there has been the notable rise of the coronavirus, that has been rapidly spreading and has led to 10% of the world’s population to be quarantined. While that is genuinely worrisome, there are some amazing solutions that could hopefully cure those afflicted with the disease. There is a new process to create vaccines that is currently being tested, where all one needs to do is add the virus to a piece of genetically modified DNA. This could speed up vaccination creation to as little as 14 days. If this technology does work disease would become a fragment of the past. 

Currently the period of time it would take to create a vaccination for the coronavirus is 3 to 4 months. The vaccine would be immediately ready to use, and could definitely help thousands of people who have been afflicted. That is still an incredibly quick turn around for a disease that has only recently been discovered. While I do agree that diseases are incredibly terrifying, it is amazing how humans have found a way to combat something so deadly in such a short amount of time.

What is concerning is the movement that wishes to stop any form of vaccination, the anti-vaxxers. This ever growing movement is extremely detrimental to the health of every human on Earth. The lack of knowledge around science is concerning, as a growing population is starting to treat science as an opinion instead of fact. I can only hope that with the rise of education, that people will turn away from this conspiracy theory since we humans have the real possibility of eradicating so many diseases that have killed and harmed millions of people.

Here is a link to the blog post that I read:

Am I… diseased?

This month has been the start of the Primaries, and there has been a lot of important political happenings in the past two weeks. The primaries have been full of tense issues, and surprise wins and loses for a variety of candidates. These upcoming elections will help determine who will ultimately become the presidential candidate for the democratic party. I do feel that it is important to watch the race since it could provide more insight to the candidates than the debate did.

 The Iowa Caucus, the most important of the primaries and caucuses, was the first of the season and there were many issues with how votes were counted. The most notable thing to come out of the Iowa caucus was the failure of the app they used to calculate the votes. Furthermore, the app that was being used funded Pete Buttigieg’s campaign which raised many concerns on whether or not the app was rigged to support Buttigieg’s campaign. It also didn’t help that the results took a week to be released. There was a lot of speculation surrounding why the results were released so late, but it seems that it was just due to the app failing. The results of the first caucuses were also peculiar since Bernie Sanders and Buttigieg were almost tied for the results. It doesn’t help Buttigieg that people are suspicious  of his win due to his close involvement with the app. The results also showed how weak of candidate that Biden is and that Warren is falling in the polls after her awful performance in the last debate. 

This past week we had the New Hampshire Primaries, which was poised to be the new Iowa due to all of the complications of the first round. Candidates were eager to perform well here since it would be a good indicator for how likely they were to get the nomination. The winner of New Hampshire was unsurprisingly Bernie Sanders, since he did spend a lot of time and money in the state to cultivate a strong following. What was surprising was how well Bloomburg did, since he joined the race last minute. Bloomburg is the only person funding his campaign since he’s a billionaire, and it is concerning that a person can buy their way into an election especially in such a short time frame. Another notable result, was how poorly Biden continues to do. He had originally been set up as the ultimate democratic candidate, but he has been faltering at every turn. This week alone he decided to insult his own voter on national television, which definitely further alienated him from his audience.

It’s also interesting to note that Yang had dropped out of the race after the primaries. All other candidates are no doubt trying to win over his previous base, but it won’t be official till Yang says something, or till the next vote. Yang dropping out at this point is also strange and it has left people curious to see if there was any explicit motive to do so. One thing is clear though, the race is constantly changing and there is no clear answer for who will win at this moment.

I read an interesting article about someone’s personal response to the State of the Union. The article brought up many interesting points about the clear divide between the democrats and the republicans, the article also discusses the oddities of the event and speech itself. Personally, I did not pay attention to the State of the Union, I nearly forgot about it since the news had mostly been following the impeachment trial which had just concluded. 

It was clear that Trump was going to use the State of the Union to revel in the fact that the senate had acquitted him. It was very clear early on that tensions were high between the two parties. As the post mentions, Trump ignored Nancy Pelosi and decided not to shake her hand even though she is Speaker of the House. This led to the retaliation of Pelosi who at the end of the event ripped up Trump’s speech. This act of defiance created a frenzy as it is very clear that there is no mending the divide between parties so long as Trump is in office. This clear lack of respect for eachother is concerning as a resident since it shows that neither side will be willing to negotiate or compromise with one another. This undermines the entire fondation that this country was created upon. Washington argued against party loyalty, and instead asked politicians to listen to their constituents, and what they personally believed to be right instead of what their affiliated party’s desired. 

The post also brings up Trump’s speech, and the lack of concrete evidence to back up his claim of what he has achieved in the past years. Trump kept mentioning how he has been able to reach the highest unemployment rate ever in the history of the US. This is a blatantly untrue statement, since unemployment rates have actually dropped every year since Trump has been elected. The numbers are still high, however, they do not compare to what Obama achieved during his time in office. Trump is known for making outlandish claims that he does not have the evidence to backup. By the Republican party allowing Trump to make these statements without any consequence sets a dangerous precedent for the future of politics. Without requiring that statements be presented truthfully, the public will no longer be able to rely on the government for any reliable type of information. This practice also allows for under qualified people to have higher roles in office than they can actually handle. We already see this occurring with Trump, but it is concerning that a political party rather not admit failure than do what is right for the people that they claim to serve.

It is clear that the State of the Union was the culmination of multiple clashing people. It is a terrifying sight to see as the upcoming presidential election looms over us. The post was a great explanation on why it is important that we pay attention to what our politicians are saying, and that we call them out when we notice that things are amiss.

Here is a link to the post I read, so that you can see their thoughtful breakdown of the State of the Union.

Where Are the Facts Mr. President?

Hello! 

I’m so sorry that I haven’t posted in a while, I have been extremely sick with some flu that has been going around. Unsurprisingly some of my less aware coworkers made jokes about me getting the coronavirus since I am Asian. Which clearly is in no way okay. This encounter with these racist sentiments gave me the urge to speak about the issue, and hopefully educate those around me.

Coronavirus in itself is a very serious disease that has been all over the news for the past couple of weeks. The disease is similar to SARs, a virus that originated from China in the Nineties that claimed the lives of thousands of people across the globe. The coronavirus is related to SAR’s and most likely came from the same source, bats. For both diseases it most likely started from the “wet markets”, a place where livestock is stored and butchered, that have a variety of animals besides ones that you would traditionally think of as food. These locations are prime for diseases since live animals are close to dead meat of different species which allow for the transfer of disease. This cross contamination allows for the disease to mutate into one that can infect Humans. This type of environment is a prime breeding ground for new diseases. Overall, China itself is a very good place for diseases to be created and to spread. Due to the large amount of “wet markets” and the highly dense population in their cities. Furthermore, China does not have many health code laws that would restrict these kinds of environments.

The place with the highest amount of people who caught the coronavirus is in China, more specifically the Hubei area, but the virus is rapidly spreading across the globe. The fact that the disease is transmissible by touch and that it  is airborne means that it could easily become a pandemic. This is clearly distressing and concerning for the majority of us, but it is important to remember that a lot of important work is occurring as we speak to find a cure. Researches state that a cure should be available in the next couple of months which is an incredibly fast turn around for a new virus that has just developed. 

Another important note of the virus is the censorship that has been occuring in China. Due to the possibility of it affecting its economic power. As the virus has grown in it’s severity other countries are reacting by banning travel from China and banning trade with China until the virus has been eradicated or is no longer a threat. Furthermore, China has been quarantining a variety of large metropolitan cities and provinces. There has been an excessive crackdown on what information is allowed to leave China, and is able for the international community to see. A lot of videos of what life is like in coronavirus dense cities have been taken down since they don’t match with the narrative that China wants. The way the government is treating this is very questionable and some even worry that it will lead to another situation like SAR’s since back then China failed to provide people with important information leading to the deaths of thousands of people.

While this is an important issue it is important to keep in mind that those who are suffering also deserve kindness, and that hopefully things will be resolved soon.

Today I read an incredibly upsetting blog post on Guinevere’s Garden. It was about how “gay panic” has been seen as a valid reason for harming a person of the LGBT community. It is incredibly concerning that this law is legal in the majority of the States, and that there has been little done to protect the LGBT community. The article was about how New Jersey has recently banned this archaic law.

I do agree with Gwen that this is a milestone for the state of New Jersey who has just banned the use of “gay panic” as an acceptible defense for violent crimes. By looking at the article she cites, it is clear that only recently have the LGBT community begin to see their rights as American citizen being protected. The first time that the “gay panic” was banned was in 2014 in California, and currently only nine states have followed in California’s footsteps. The rise in the protection of LGBT rights are most likely due to the normalization of LGBT relationships after same sex marriage was legalized across the United States, and the globe.

It is strange for me to see how often people discriminate against the LGBT community since I have moved to a more conservative city. When I lived in a bigger city that was more progressive almost no one would bat an eye at someone who had a different sexuality than themselves. Even though Austin is considered a more hipster and progressive part of Texas, people are still more conservative when compared to the majority of the American population. Yesterday, I had passed an old man who was yelling at passerby’s about the evils of homosexuality. This blatantly rude display of hatred was absolutely fighting to see during the middle of the day. I cannot even begin to imagine the fear and pain that members of the LGBT community must feel when they live in places that do not protect them. 

Gwen also discusses the LGBT bar, an LGBT legal nonprofit which has been at the forefront of overturning the “gay panic” laws. It is extremely uplifting to hear that there is work that is actively being done to protect a marginalized community. The article itself also mentions how the Democrats tried to pass a law pushing for equal rights for transgender and queer American Citizens, however, this reform was rejected by the Republican controlled Senet. It is clear that the people must push for change by electing officials who want a country that protects all of its citizens equally. Furthermore, with the major election coming up later this year America may be able to elect a candidate with more progressive reforms. 

While I am not able to vote in the United States, I am still able to participate in political campaigns or volunteer for nonprofits. It is up to the people to push for the change that we want to see, and even if you are not a citizen you can still help by raising your voice and offering a helping hand to others.

Here is the link to the blog post and article:

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/n-j-bans-gay-transgender-panic-defenses-n1120416

New Jersey bans "Gay Panic"

It has been another crazy week in American politics. The impeachment hearing is well underway, and dare I say that it has been incredibly entertaining to watch. Politics in the states have always seemed to resemble reality tv, especially with the current president. But it is an exciting event to witness while in Texas. When I lived back home it was easy to mark things off as Americans being crazy once again, but now that I live in the states I realized that I should probably focus a bit more on the state of the government since it could possibly affect the way that I live. 

The first three days of the impeachment hearing was the prosecution’s argument. The democrats had many high profile constitutional law lawyers argue how the president has abused his power while in office. While I didn’t watch the entirety of the trial that parts that I did view were very convincing. Many of the arguments did seem repetitive I think the prosecution was trying to show that the president has made some very obvious mistakes that people don’t seem to notice. 

Over 11million people watched the impeachment trial so far, and it is clear that the American people have a lot invested in the outcome of the trial. Many people are outspoken on which side they are on for the trial. It is more clear than ever that the United States has become divided over their political parties. It is clear that it will be difficult for reconciliation to occur between the two sides. Furthermore, with these feelings of animosity against one another, how could people expect the government to function in a nonpartisan way. 

The next phase of the trail will be the defense’s case for keeping Trump in office. It is widely believed that the Republicans will be focusing on Biden for the remainder of the trial. Most likely questioning his involvement with Ukraine. However, it is widely reported that Trump created those lies about Biden and Ukraine, so I am unsure what the defense hopes to achieve with this line of argument.

This historical event will determine how presidents are allowed to conduct themselves in office. If Trump’s actions go unpunished, it will allow presidents to have much more authority over the United States. If that is the case the United States government will face major changes in the next few years, as we see the checks and balances system lose its power. The outcome of the trial will most likely also change how the upcoming presidential debates will go. If Trump is impeached the question for who will run in his place will become an urgent concern for the Republican party.

In the next few days we will see the outcome of one of the most important times in America’s history. No matter the outcome, it will be faced with opposition claiming unfairness, and likely protests across the United States.

I don’t think anyone here would be surprised when I say that I follow the Royal Family. I honestly think it’s every Brits favorite pastime. You know gossiping and speculating what really goes on behind Windsor castle. This week, especially my friends back home have been texting me about the new royal scandal. Megxit of course.

This past week Megan and Harry have announced that they would like to part ways with their royal duties, and live a more peaceful and comfortable life. Understandably, this has caused an uproar back home. I know that most people don’t like Megan for whatever reason (mostly racists reasons but I digress), but I am personally a fan of hers.

Now while this may have a small impact on the government itself, many see this as the pair undermining our long standing British culture. Now it is no surprise why they would like to leave the family to seek financial independence. Ever since they had been together Megan has been plagued with racist and sexist remarks. The lack of support she has been given during these hard times is a mark against the Family. The lack of official statements in support also show how little the Family is aware of how deeply impactful these comments can be. Megan pulling away from the spotlight is probably in part to those hateful comments that are seen everywhere in the UK.

Furthermore, this could signify the beginning of the end of what we currently call the Royal Family. The Royal Family has been following strict rules created by the Crown for decades, and in the last couple of years there has been some backlash about how they are detached from the public. With the introduction of Megan, an African American actress, there was hope for more diverse representation and even modernization in the Family. Megan was frequently seen breaking even the smallest of rules, which probably seems ridiculous to most, such as showing her knees in a dress. These antiquated rules don’t really reflect modern England, and it was a welcome sign that Megan wanted to do away with them. The Family’s unwillingness to reflect the times will ultimately be their undoing, as more people grow tired with their scandals and their lavish spending. 

While the pair might be leaving the UK and stepping back from their royal duties. They do plan on continuing a few minor duties. Their lowered involvement hasn’t truly been done before, but it could represent how royals will serve the public in the coming future. Them stepping back also allows for WIlliam to be more in the spotlight. It is strange the William isn’t seen as often in the news since he is in line for the throne.This could be a good chance for the public to reconnect with William who has been criticized for being detached from civilians.

In all honesty, this new step for the Royal Family will no doubt be monumental in British cultural history. Hopefully this will bring modernization to the Crown since they are so far removed from what life is truly like for the majority of us.