career cruising

the career i selected was a lawyer - the career selections did match up there were many careers that dealt with law - there were also many artistic careers suggested which is another feild I am interested in. It only listed universities, no cejeps but there were many different universities I could go to.
None of the requirments for being a lawyer are things that I wouldn't want to do. I think law is definitly well suited for me - I am very accurate and precise and organized when it comes things, so in that way I would do my job very well. When it says in the description that it is seven years more of education past high school, I think, wow that is a lot, I better really want to do law and I don't know if that is definitly what I want to do, I just know I could probably do it well.

smokin' stoves

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061024214803.htm

“In a field test in Honduras, the researchers found that cook stoves there, which are similar to those used in other developing nations, produce two times more smoke particles than expected, based on previous laboratory studies. These dark, sooty particles, which are darker than those produced by grassland or forest fires, have a climate warming effect because they absorb solar energy and heat the atmosphere, according to Roden.”

In addition to the affects it causes to the environment, they also pose health hazards for the users. This article taught me that there are millions of things which contribute to global warming and that everyday we discover another thing which is bad for the environment. It is good that we are finding these problems, and the hopefully attempt to fix them and make it better, but it also just shows us that we can’t avoid it either, for people who are paranoid, we must learn that there will always be something which is bad, that is unavoidable – we need to chose and prioritize right now, we can pick which things are better or more efficient even if both are bad for the environment, you can chose the one which is less bad. Or if you have something which is usefull bu harmful to the environment, maybe cut back on something else.
More related to this specific article, these people in these countries need these stoves to cook their food, if we are able to provide them with these resources we should, but then the question becomes – do we risk harming the environment and possibly people’s health to provide people the means to cook food? I think so – but in the mean time we should try and develop better technology and stoves etc. Thankfully the company which provided these stoves is redistributing new ones:
“Trees, Water & People and other nonprofit agencies are distributing new low-cost, wood-burning cook stoves in Honduras and other Latin American countries that appear to be less polluting and more fuel efficient, according to the researchers. However, further analysis is needed.
"Designing and distributing improved cook stoves may be an effective method of mitigating global climate change, and can improve the health of the users," Roden said. "However, the cook stoves must be well designed and properly tested. They must be built with local traditions and practices in mind and must be easy to use, or they may become expensive doorstops."”

are the phytoplanktons causing us troubles?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061013202025.htm
Here I discovered that along with humans contributing to global warming, there are natural causes as well. Yes I knew there were many many reasons, but this is a new one for me. Basically, this article explains how the phytoplankton in the ocean move so much that the total amount of energy they produce is a lot! Here are some quotes so that you can understand it better:
"Physical and biological oceanographers led by FSU Professor William Dewar put the yearly amount of chemical power stored by phytoplankton in the form of new organic matter at roughly 63 terawatts, and that's a lot of juice: Just one terawatt equals a trillion watts. In 2001, humans collectively consumed a comparatively measly 13.5 terawatts. "
"What's more, their study found that the marine biosphere ---- the chain of sea life anchored by phytoplankton ---- invests around one percent (1 terawatt) of its chemical power fortune in mechanical energy, which is manifested in the swimming motions of hungry ocean swimmers ranging from whales and fish to shrimp and krill. Those swimming motions mix the water much as cream is stirred into coffee by swiping a spoon through it.
And the sum of all that phytoplankton-fueled stirring may equal climate control."
"In fact, he explained, biosphere mixing appears to provide about one third the power required to bring the deep, cold waters of the world ocean to the surface, which in turn completes the ocean's conveyor belt circulation critical to the global climate system. "
This surprised me a lot because I had always thought that humans were pretty much the cause of global warming etc. But here it shows that this is something completely out of our control that has happened naturally so unfortunately we need to accept the consequences that come from it. We cannot eliminate all the phytoplankton in the world because they are important to it and they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t needed for something. It is sort of scary to think that something so little can collectively be SO powerful and it is scary as well because there is nothing we can do about it. The world evolves and changes, we can try and do some things to help slow down global warming and all those types of things, but I guess part of it is just natural and would happen normally with out our help. This is very new to me; I never would have thought that the world itself would be partly to blame for all these changes, so it makes me wonder if it has to happen. Does our climate need to change? If so should we let it, or is it a bad thing even if it is happening naturally, in which case we should try and slow it down.

Stats. Canada

I chose the Employment by Industry table. This table shows that the industry which has had the most people employed in 2005 was the services-producing sector. The one with the least was utilities. This gives me some insight into which carrers have been more "popular" or more needed recently. I do not know which feild I want to go into yet, there are lots of options, but I can tell that from 2001-2005 pretty much every single industry has increased the amount of people employed, there may have been some ups and downs, but all the employments according to idustry have gone up.

Unions

I think that yes unions are useful in that they protect the workers and help make the work environment better, safer and more equal for everyone, but everyone includes the employer as well, so if they gain too much power, then the employer, who needs to make a living as well is forgotten about. There needs to be an equal balance, and it has to be fair for everyone. So over all, unions help make that happen so they are good.

Career Blog

I chose Costume design which was in the Arts and Music category. I looked at the interview with Charlotte. At the beginning a person will typically make up to 10 thousand dollars a year, this is as a student in design school, then working in theatre you can make from 15 to 35 thousand a year and finally as a design shop owner you can make up to 40 thousand dollars.
A day will typically last from 8:30-7:30, with and hour for lunch and a half an hour for dinner. In order to do this job and enjoy it you must like history, since many plays or films involve the past, whether it be 10 years ago or 100 years ago. Also you must enjoy and be good at drawing, and you must be a creative person, also you should know how to design and make clothing. You should probably also be a patient person since I would imagine that there would be a lot of nit-picky details to look after.

I think I would enjoy this job because I love history and I am a creative person, this incorporates the two very well, I have actually thought about this career in the past. What I wouldn’t enjoy so much about it would be the long hours possibly in front of a sewing machine. What I know I would love about it would be creating and reviving a whole new world for a movie or a play.

The NOC code for creative design is 524

The job prospects for this career are “fair” because there has been an increase of people in this field despite the lack of job opportunities in 2001. The hourly wages are $16.77 which is very close to the average hourly wage and right now the amount of job opportunities is equal to the number of workers.

insurance companies not so sure

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11425

This article is telling you how the insurance companies in the U.S. are realizing that global warming is affecting their business. Because of the increase in hurricanes, forest fires etc. they are having a lot more problems to deal with and more clients. Yes it’s good that they have more clients, but these companies never really want to pay everything to everyone, they usually look for loopholes. In the article it says:
“Currently, he said, insurers withdraw from these high-risk areas entirely.”
This is really bad because isn’t it their job to provide people with insurance? If no one is there to help all these people, such as those who were hurt because of the Katrina hurricane, then these places will never be fixed again. It will end up being a vicious circle because these are also the places that get hit most frequently by the hurricanes as well, so then they will get more and more damaged to the point where it is WAY too big a job and it will take forever to fix.
This next quote ties into my previous blog:
“The Bush administration has been skeptical of the link between global climate change and hurricanes and wildfires, and President Bush has only recently acknowledged a relationship between human activities and global warming.”
This is really annoying, how can you just deny something that is right in front of your face?? You can only change something once you acknowledge it, and this problem has been around for a while and something needs to be done about it, and the insurance companies not helping the people who are affected by it is not good at all, that is their job and they should realize that times are changing so they need to make adjustments.

The Cougars are back

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11382

It was believed that the cougar had pretty much disappeared in Eastern Canada, but on Wednesday, they Canadian national parks service found a hair at Forillon Park. They have now set up bait on poles wrapped in rough carpet; the cats will hopefully rub against the poles, thus allowing them to analyze the hairs. From analyzing them, they are able to tell where the cat came from. The decline in their species in this area of Canada started in the late 1800’s because of hunting, trapping and loss of territory.
I think it is very lucky that we have found evidence of the cats here; it shows that they are not totally extinct. We, as humans need to be more cautious when it comes to animals and their homes, we can’t just invade their territory and kill them off. Luckily we are more educated about it and know how to accommodate them, but back then we didn’t so it is very lucky that they are not totally wiped out in Eastern Canada (they are still in Western Canada) and so now we need to be more aware of their presence. This doesn’t just go for any animal; all animals need to be treated with care and respect.

Talking about respecting animals, on a side not, flipping through television channels, I came upon Survivor, and they are climbing a tree and I see them poking at a bird. I was very confused. Evidentially they were hoping to find eggs, but instead they knocked the nest right out of the tree and it had baby birds in it. How irresponsible and unaware do you have to be to do that? You can not just go poking around trees and nests, disturbing the animals and taking what you want. This is not only our world. I was disgusted that they treated it with total disrespect, yes you are on an island, but you do not need to knock over newly born birds to get some food.

A Bush in Denial

http://environment.about.com/b/a/256810.htm

This article is talking about how the Bush administration has been keeping scientific reports about how global warming can be linked with the increase in hurricanes. There are numerous reports being issued, but no one is allowed to talk about it.
Here are some examples:
“NOAA scientist Tom Knutson was prevented from speaking to reporters in 2005 because he has published research that links global warming to hurricane intensity, a position that doesn’t mesh with the views of the administration.”

“NASA scientist and climate-change expert James Hansen was prevented by political appointees at NASA from speaking to the media after he gave a lecture about the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming.”

Senators have sent a letter to NASA and the administration asking for a formal investigation.

I think that this is ridiculous, why wouldn’t you want to let your country know the truth about what is happening to our environment? Why would someone go to such lengths to hide the truth? Maybe they are trying to hide something. Either way, I think that the only way that we will be able to do anything about the problem of global warming is by educating the public. If this isn’t done then how can we expect the problem to be fixed? If someone prevents the people from knowing the truth, then it isn’t the people’s fault if nothing happens, it is the person’s fault for knowing the information but doing nothing with it. Knowing significant information and doing nothing with it is just as bad, if not worse than not educating yourself on the subject. This is a very important subject because it directly affects every single person on this planet, not just every person but every single thing on this earth; weather, crops, clothing, animal migrations, plant growth, water levels – which then leads to certain coast lines decreasing, and so many other things. This is why I have such a difficult time trying to understand why President Bush would want to hide this information. What is his benefit from doing this?