Creativity

I consider myself to be a pretty creative individual, maybe not so much in my writing but I am artistic, and I have creative thoughts and ideas. I came across this Building blocks of creativity article on the psychology today blog. The people in my life always tell me how creative I am, from the little sculptures I make, to the scrap booking I do and even telling stories. The building blocks article suggests that creativity may result from childhood play and imaginary friends.

When I look back to my childhood I am flooded with memories of games my friends and I would make up to play, and the "artist" of the week awards I won a couple times while I was in grade school, to taking ceramics in high school. The household I grew up in, reading wasn't really pushed as an activity, and I was a mischievous child so I remember being grounded a lot, which included the T.V; so I was left with nothing but my imagination. I remember coming home from school and being bored out of my mind so I would just lay in bed and stare up at the ceiling for hours and just let my imagination run wild, the day dreams I would create were almost as vivid as the dreams I had while sleeping. This became one of my favorite activities as a child since I was left with nothing to do. During this time I also wrote short stories and practiced my sketching, even when I wasn't grounded these became activities that I enjoyed and still enjoy today. Day dreaming is still one of my favorite activities and it comes in handy during long meetings and classes.

Could you imagine a world if imaginary play would be restricted? If all children were restricted from using their imagination would we of had such great artists such as Picasso , Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Dali? or great literary authors like Poe and Hemingway. Everyone should take a little break from life to dream a little.

Biofuel Plants

I use google reader as a way to keep up on the news from places such as Psychology Today, National Geographic, Discovery, and Scientific American. I found an interesting video about the Jatropha plant. At the bottom of the video it displays

Jatropha, a hardy biofuel plant grown in salty soils near the Indian Ocean, may reduce biofuels' competition with food-producing crops, industry officials say.

If this plant in fact can produce mass quantities of ethanol and reduce the use of corn it could drive down food costs and end the food riots that are going on currently. According to Circle Biodiesel & Ethanol Corporation these Jatropha plants are resistant to drought and produce seeds that contain 40% Jatropha oil. This corporation has also done research into the use of algae to produce biofuels. They state that one of their machines runs for 195,000 US dollars (which is probably 1 day in iraq) and it can produce 1 gallon per minute. They have containers in which algae can be grown, but the use of algae would also be a way to clean up lakes, streams, oceans and pretty much all water sources since some algae blooms are caused from runoff pollution from fertilizers and farm waste.

Some species of algae are so rich in oil that it accounts for over 50% of their mass, which means not counting the water, which is over 90% of the algae. It is believed that the majority of oil and natural gas originates from algae in ancient oceans.

With an economy in an economic slump one would think we would be investing more into these resources, for one it would produce thousands of jobs. You have to have "farms" to grow the algae, people to transport it, people to run the machines that transform the algae into usable fuel, to bottle it up for transport, etc. etc. Also if oil companies should be looking more into these resources because their product is going to be a thing of the past, and the costs are already too high

Hop on the bandwagon for electric cars

This morning I was listening to NPR's "Oil Prices Gone Wild" on my way to work they keep talking about how the oil prices keep going up and they are only going to keep going up. How some of the oil producing countries are trying to get the prices to come down, but since all of the oil producing countries aren't increasing production the prices of oil continue to rise. I have also read John McCains Energy Policy he wants the ban to do off shore drilling lifted so we Americans can stop our dependence on foreign oil. This may sound fine to some Americans, but this isn't the solution to the problem and once the ban is lifted it's going to be harder to get the ban back in place. Trust me once oil spills start happening and our coasts are being ruined from them, and animals are washing up on the shore dead from oil suffocation, there is going to be a large public outcry. By then it will be too late, major damage will be done to our beaches and wild life, not to mention it will be difficult to pass legislation to have the ban reinstated because we didn't do anything but make our dependence on oil stronger. Does the American public even want to take this chance?

Americans should be working to rid our dependence on oil period. Brazil has been using Ethanol for years, and all of their gas pumps have been converted they don't even use oil anymore. We should be working on going completely to hybrids and electric cars, they have a few electric cars out now, one manufacture produces the Aptera and it looks promising but they are only available in California. There is also the Xebra but it has only sold 700 cars in America. Although the reviews haven't been great on it, the higher the demand the more cars manufacturers will produce hybrid and electric card and the vehicles quality will only improve over time.

Most people drive short distances unless going on vacation, or traveling for work. I bet 65% of Americans could go to using electric cars because of how little they drive. Those who do drive more could opt to get a hybrid to make up for the extra distance. Unfortunately most gas stations in America haven't even upgraded their pumps to supply ethanol, which should have already been happening. Car manufactures also charge an addition 3500.00 dollars on buying a hybrid when the consumer should be getting a tax break. Things aren't going to change in America until the consumers and voters start complaining, people should be writing their congressmen,senators, and local car dealerships voicing what they want. If voters were to start complaining in large numbers the representative in each state are going to want to push for economy friendly cars because they want to get re-elected.

I personally do not plan on buying a new car until 2010 because that is when some of the electric cars plan to go on the market. I only drive to school, work, and small errands. I probably at most drive 200 miles per week and I shouldn't be paying 80 dollars a month to fill up my tank for that kind of driving, especially in a Honda civic.

Even chimps know the importance of emotional support

It’s amazing to me that even though we are at the top of the food chain and intelligence ladder we still learn from our “lesser” companions in the animal kingdom. In the article “Chimps Hug, Kiss to Show Support” it discusses that after chimps have been pushed around another chimp not involved in the conflict will approach the victim and console him/her by giving a hug and/or a kiss. Those researching this phenomenon found that stress was reduced; this was show by chimps actually reducing their stress behavior such as scratching and self grooming.

If chimps know the importance of consoling a person when they are having a stressful day, we should know this. So next time a person in your life has a bad day, whether if be a child, friend, spouse or significant other remember a hug and a little sympathy can go a long way, and they will be more inclined to comfort you when you need it.

What is the problem people

While going through google reader catching up on my new I came across http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/quirky-little-things/200806/the-bigot-in-the-political-pulpit-gays-get-the-shaft . Disgusting? an abomination? Something repulsive and to be loathed, these sound like adjectives that would describe a serial killer, or a pedophile but what is this woman describing her thoughts on gays?

Really people it’s 2008 and gays have been around as long as man has been around, and gay people aren’t going any where nor should they. I was so happy to hear that California is now allowing gays to get married, and then I come across an article like this, just when I though people were putting aside their personal beliefs and giving people (yes for those of you who don’t know gays are people too) the right to be married, a right that should have been theirs a long time ago. I am a human rights activist, that doesn’t mean I go on pickets and do anything crazy it means that I believe ALL people should have the same rights. People should not be putting religion into the equation, its fine if you’re religious and everyone is entitled to their own beliefs but you shouldn’t restrict a person’s rights because of their sexual orientation. Seriously how does one’s sexual orientation effect your personally? It doesn’t you can get on with your life the same as it was before. Sexual orientation is something that cannot be helped. It’s not like you woke up one morning and thought to yourself I think I’m doing to be straight today, just like gays didn’t wake up and choose to be that way.

And for those of you who are religious, do you know what an abomination is? It’s an organization that covers the biggest child molestation scandal the world has ever known and it has paid out 2 billion dollars in abuse costs since 1950, just incase you don’t know what I’m talking about it’s the Catholic Church. A scandal that the Vatican helped cover for many years, it’s the organization that tells the public what morals they should abide by, but they themselves do not abide by. They are the ones that tell you that gays are evil in the eyes of God and they can’t keep their hands off little boys. That to me just seems wrong, and it’s a religion I certainly couldn’t follow.

Anyway back to the topic at hand, what is so wrong with gay people? Like I said above sexual orientation isn’t a choice it’s something you are born with, and yet gays aren’t seen as equals in the eyes of the law, people still beat them for being gay and unfortunately gays are still being killed because of their sexual preferences. I hate to use this as an example because the two really aren’t related but both are something you are born with. Individuals born mental handicaps, it is something they can’t help but they have protection under the law, those without severe handicaps can get married, and when someone kills them or physically harms them there is a large public outcry. And yet when someone harms an individual that is gay, I heard a lot of “gays get what they deserve” or something like this article said “It is an offence to God, an offensive act and something that God abhors." They are so fixated on the fact that the individual is gay that they don’t even see that a person was harmed. What do you think God finds more offensive beating people up and killing them, or being gay? If you guess being gay, your incorrect. Those bible beaters out there quickly forget that Jesus was persecuted for his beliefs, for not conforming to what society at the time believed and he crucified for it. Is being gay so different, you have people out there just trying to live their lives but you have other people all over the world that want to persecute them and see them wiped off the face of the earth in the name of religion? Does that strike anyone else as odd? It’s sad to say that those who do the in the name of religion are usually doing the most offensive things, such as protesting at funerals.

Please don’t misinterpret what I said above about gays and the handicap, it was a bad example but I couldn’t think of anything else, I’m not saying people shouldn’t be upset when the handicap get hurt, and I’m not saying that being gay is a mental handicap because it isn’t. I’m just trying to express that ALL people should be seen in the same light, all people should be seen the same way in the eyes of the law, all people should have the same rights.

I also heard marriage is between a man and a woman, according to whom? Another thing I hear is letting gays get married is a sacrilege, married sacred? Sorry to bust some bubbles but how sacred is marriage anymore? Look at the divorce rate, you have people say oh well you know it was her first marriage and you know first marriages never work? Also adultery is out of control, if marriage was as sacred as people believe, you wouldn’t be able to get married by Elvis in Vegas, you wouldn’t be able to get a divorce so there would be no “1^st marriage mistakes”, and there would be no such thing as adultery. If gay people want to join the matrimony nightmare let them, who are you and I to prevent people from achieving happiness.