Volcanic Eruption

In addition to concern for the well being of the people of Iceland, there are concerns about the economic backlash created by this volcanic eruption. Volcanic ash grounded flights needing to go through Iceland air space. The delays have been so long that airline losses rivaled that of those after the September 11 attacks. According to officials from German airline Lufthansa, they alone at one point is losing €25 million a day. Airlines financial matters are not the only concerns but the well-being of many European countries is dependent upon air travel. Many aquire most of their resources and medical supplies through air transport. Replacement parts, components and medical supplies for manufacturers and hospitals are essential but because of the volcanic activity these supplies are delayed and unfortunately it's not a simple job to transfer the mode of transportation to truck or ship. Fortunately, the EU is poised and ready to take action if need be in the form of compensation and relief if need be. Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said " 'If member states would decide to help with state aid and provided conditions for receiving state aid were not discriminatory, we are ready to think in a similar framework to after Sept. 11,' he said at a conference in Brussels."
Eyjafjallajokull's eruption also has had global impact. Dirk Brockman, a scientist from North Western University, and his research team examined and discovered some interesting facts. He found evidence that the United States and Southeast Asia are also significantly affected by this turn of events. The European hub of Airports is the gateway to the rest of the world. Airports like those in Hong Kong and Singapore were more affected despite geographically being a disconnected from Iceland and Europe by continents.

Concordia in Shanghai

There's a new building on Concordia's campus, or new high school that is. The Concordia International School Shanghai has just completed a new building state-of-the-art high school. The building is 12,000 square meters. This development completes Concordia International School Shanghai. In a ceremony that dedicated the new building, the student body and their parents met in the new gymnasium to hear elementary music performances and a few speeches given by some students.The speeches spanned the elementary and grade school levels and were given in English and Spanish. The picture to the left is an example of one the schools state-of-the-art features. It is a ground-source geo-thermal heat exchange system. Just one of the green choices the school has made. This choice alone according to Concordia Shanghai Head of School Dr. James Koerschen saves over a quarter of their energy costs. Additional green choices include the abundant use of Bamboo (a renewable resource) in desks, walls and doors; sky-lights and a substantial number of windows; and the installment of green roofs on some campus buildings.
The China Construction Bank was one of the guests present at the ceremony. The knowledge that Christians and Missionaries can suffer persecution in China made reading this site (http://www.ciss.com.cn/) all the more interesting. It's a great piece of evidence to the industrial strides China is making and even of the restraint being shown by the Communist Government. Make no mistake, they benefit from this. China desires a greater level of education for its people and the United States success is desired and utilized when possible.

Bizzare Foods

How adventurous are you? I like trying knew foods and by that I mean knew kinds of meat. I prefer it cooked and unable to tell what part of the body what I'm about to eat came from. Insects and spiders or anything that can fall under crawly critter are a no for me. Fried Spiders, Bee Larvae, Grubs, wasps, scorpians and grasshoppers are just a few of the insects found to be delicacies around the world. Deep fried tarantulas in Cambodia are said to taste like a mix between chicken and cod. The grasshopper in China and other Southeast Asian countries is a regular sight. Places like the Tianjin marketplace sell it on a stick and they are also served fried (What doesn't taste good when fried?). Japan has wasp cookies... personally just the thought is disturbing. These snacks provide a good amount of protein in people's diets.
I spent a little over a week in Mexico. Authentic Mexican food is different (and many times better) than what you find at Taco Bell and Amigos. After the time I spent there all I wanted was an American cheeseburger. In general I like the foreign foods I've gotten to try. I enjoy Chinese and Thai. The biggest difference between the two for me was the spiciness. Thai has a bit more kick. Huhot, a mongolian grill, in Lincoln is another restaurant of foreign food that I like.

National Geographic

So I would never own a cat but I find wild cats some of the most interesting and cool pieces of creation. My favorite large cats are lions, tigers, and black panthers. I enjoy videos where I get to see animals interact with technology. I like seeing their fascination and interest with the different objects. It's cool to be able to go to the zoo and see these guys up close but there's nothing like seeing them in their natural habitat. It's unfortunate that we would ever sacrifice them for immediate and personal gain. Glad to see that they are fighting for their own survival with or without our help.

World's Richest (Billionaires)

According to Forbes there is a new richest man. This is the third time in the last three years. Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to possess the title of the richest man in the world. His net worth is around $53.5 billion dollars, half a billion more than Bill Gates. Warren Buffet is just under $50 billion dollars at $47 billion. These numbers change on a daily basis according to an article on the research methods for this information. The numbers and positions concerning these billion(s) dollar men and women fluctuate so much that many of the statistics presented on Forbes are already grossly incorrect. I always find it ironic when they talk about Billionaires and Millionaires suffering along with the global economy. I don't know how you can suffer with that much money. I did read about the billionaire drop outs though and found a wide spectrum of stories. Some will be back on the list with the revitalization of economies, the calming of political/civil unrest, etc. Others may be off for good from various reasons. The story of Madeleine Schickedanz stuck

out at me. Because of poor management this multibillionaire heiress is now reportedly living on less than a 1000 a month.

A life goal of mine is to tour/journey through Africa. A lot of times I think when people think of Africa they only think of desert or savanna. The Sahara, which means desert in Arabic, is the worlds largest desert at 3.3 million square miles. That is 25% of the continent of Africa. Only 5% of the world's landscape is covered in desert.The savannas are home to diverse cultures and a great population of animals. I had an opportunity to go on a safari at the end of the summer. When I think of the desert I think of something plain, dry and arid. I hate a bunch of sand but the way the sun hits the dunes here make it cool and I don't think I'd mind walking through it. The first picture has an Oryx Antelope in it. The second picture is of a Wodaabe Nomad. Traditionally they are nomadic cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel. Their migrations stretch from the western borders of Niger and Nigeria, south to Cameroon and east to the Central African Republic. In 1983 the number of Wodaabe was estimated to be 45,000. They are known for their beauty (both men and women), elaborate attire and rich cultural ceremonies.

Africa becoming global petroleum exporter

Click link below for video-

Shell, BP, Engen & SDCEA (2006) Pt1

Conflicts and tensions in the Middle East have made countries look for a new source of petroleum, and with the rise of nationalist governments in Central and South America Many countries in Africa are stepping in as the new dealers. The upside for Africa is there has been an upsurge in oil prices. This creates an influx of income from petroleum exports. Unfortunatley, in many cases the environment suffers and some nations become allocation states. Allocation states rely on foreign companies to mine the resources and to provide the workforce to do so. Their income comes primarily from the trade of their resources and not from tax revenues. These countries many times also lack a central bureaucracy. These are the top ten oil producing countries in Africa using statistics published by the US Energy Agency for 2005:
10) Gabon (Production: 226,000 barrels per day)
9) Congo Brazzaville (Production:227,000 barrels per day)
8) Chad (Production: 249,000 barrels per day)
7) Equatorial Guinea (Production: 356,000 barrels per day)
6) Sudan (Production: 363,000 barrels per day)
5) Egypt (Production: 579,000 barrels per day)
4) Angola (Production: 1,250,000 barrels per day)
3) Libya (Production: 1,600,000 barrels per day)
2) Algeria (Production: 2,080,000 barrels per day)
1) Nigeria (Production: 2,600,000 barrels per day)

The Life Expectancy index,education index and GDP index averaged equals HDI (Human Development Index). The Life Expectancy index is based on the infant mortality rate,the education index deals primarily with school enrollment and the literacy rate of adults in a country, and GDP index deals with a nations level of household income.

The West (Europe and North America) sits atop the HDI statistics consistently. Africa as a continent has the lowest numbers consistently. Norway has the highest HDI value (.971), Japan has the greatest life expectancy at birth (82.7 yrs), Australia the highest gross enrollment (114.2%), and Liechtenstein the greatest GDP per capita (85,382 in US$).

Africa has a serious history of colonialism and ratial exploitation that still are effecting Africa today. The national borders outlined by European powers as they divided the contintent up are mainly unchanged in the modern world today.These borders were and are oblivious to the cultural, tribal, and linguistic groups in Africa. These groups clash over resources for their own very survival and kids are not safe from the battle lines drawn. The poor literacy rate is a sign of a lacking educational system, but kids also must acutually be in school for their to be progress. Africa has not only had to deal with history and external struggles but as it has tried to establish itself globally Africa has also had to deal with dictators, civil wars (ethnic divisions), and the abuse or lack of natural resources. Without a homegrown workforce or economy foreign corporations will reap the greatest benefits from the resources in Africa.

U.S. commercial flights resume to Haiti
(February 19, 2010 11:58 a.m.)




The first flight to Haiti since the earthquake on January 12 was an American Airlines flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It left at 7:36 a.m. ET after about an hour's delay, according to the airline's Web site. The flight landed at 9:22 a.m. ET in Haiti, the company said.
The Haitian Government says the death total is at least 212,000. The quake damaged some buildings at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the Haitian capital. Regardless, American Airlines plans to have 3 flights a day from Florida to Haiti.
The airport main terminal was damaged so the Haiti customs officials will work out of a cargo facility.The restoration of commericial air service will go a long way to healing Haiti but more importantly it will allow families and friends to reconnect.

This is a map representing the countries with suspected nuclear weapons in 2002. Iran and North Korea are not represented on this map. The U.S., U.K., France, China, Israel, Inda, and the Russian Federation are those estimated to have the most nuclear weapons. Other territories that are suspected of having nuclear weapons have few in comparison so that map wouldn't change much.



Africa is a huge hub of wireless connection and mobile phone companies are making moves to be the main providers. Mobile phones are cheaper than what it would cost to invest in a cable infrastructure. The top eight mobile phone companies are not from Western countries although Maroc Telecom (Morocco) is partly owned by the French conglomerate Vivendi. The two largest phone operators in the African Market are Globacom (Nigeria)and Mobinel (Egypt).

There are around 3 mainline telephones for every 25 people in the World. Western Europe has an average of 28.5 per 50 and Central Africa just 3 per 100. The cost of mainline telephones are greatest in regions that are rich or poor. Those regions in the medium range have a cost at a third of both extremes. The world earning average from mainline telephones is $630(US dollar) and from $265(South Asia) to $2805(Japan).

Teutonic Plate line in the Carribean. It's interesting to think that the islands are the plateaus for huge underwater mountains.




Another view of the narrow isthmus between North and South America.

Haiti- the center point of the worldwide media at the moment. Above is a picture of the destruction in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, where most of the damage was taken from the earthquake. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and though its people are resiliet- evidence of surviving 4 consecutive hurricanes in the past decade- it his hard to see how they wood effectively recover from this without some outside help, especially because their capital was hit the hardest.

Its neighbor the Dominican Republic in comparison was unscathed and has started to slowly but surely develop with its democratic government. It is also one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Carribean. There is history behind these circumstance and if you wish to read in depth about this check out the sites I have written below.

www.gallup.com/poll/.../island-divide-haiti-vs-dominican-republic.aspx
www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q...haiti_dominican