While They Slept Part 6

In the final part of this book, we begin to understand the main topic of this book, which is how do you survive after such sever emotional trauma. Instead of making the main character Billy, the killer, the author focuses on Jody, the person who has gone through such a horrible event. When asked about it, she says "That there was no way that I could come from such a horrible background and not be damaged beyond repair"(qtd. on 247). She seems to feel that there is no return from such an even, and she may have comtemplated suicide. This creates the theme that for some people there is no return from this and their life will be defined by this event. She further writes that she loves holocaust literature and "knowing that the thin veneer of civility that masks human savagery is universal in extreme situations made me feel a lot more normal"(qtd. in 248). This knowledge that humans are barely different from savages seems to help her a lot. Knowing that what her mother did was not the only time in the world where someone has done horrible stuff has helped her realize that her experience is not much different. She can then indentify with those who had been in concentration camps.
When Billy goes to prison, however, he encounters a much different environment. Much like his father and his relationship, it is a place characterized by violence. Men have to assert their supiority in the most basic of ways. He says "I just got a repuration as a crazy with a deth wish"(264). He may want to outright die, especially when he first showed up at the prison and may have been overwhelmed with the idea of spending his whole life here. This would create a hopeless situation for many people, especially if they were as young as Billy. One of the most important parts of his stint in prison was his creation so a martial arts school. He writes "This parental-like role gave me a reason to live"(267). He may want to prove to himself that he wasn't a bad a parent as his father was, and that he is different from him. He may also just want to be a in a position of powere where he at least has some control over the other inmates.

While They Slept Part 5

One of the most important topics of this book is how to deal with an emotional trauma. Jody, the sister that survives her parent's murders at the hand of her brother is the prime example of this. She is comforted by Connie, a director of the newly formed Victim's assistance office. She started this because of the horrible experience she had when her grandfather was murdered. She and her husband supposedly had to "clean up the blood and brain matter spattered over his cabin"(206). It is absolutely disgusting that the relatives of the crime victim had to do such a disgusting job. They were obviously barely getting over the brutal murder, and then had to go and see the grisly remains, and clean it up themselves. This may tarnish the memory of her grandfather forever. This also shows in how Jody reacts. She doesn't become the emotional dramatic girl, instead is "but I never sense I'm observing her or experiencing her emotion, only that I'm listening to her report of them"(209). Jody seems to not be able to express how she feels, and instead relegates herself to reporting how she think she is supposed to feel. This kind of traumatic event may not be able to expressed in words.
It's also interesting to see how she described the history of parricide. While initially dismissed as a crime perpetrated by horrible children that had no use in society, it is now being seen for what it is in some cases. Paul Mones, an expert, says this "Courts are finally waking up to the problem. Kids just don't take these actions unless something is very, very wrong"(qtd. on 219). Obviously murder in any case is an evil crime that should be avoided at all costs. Sometimes, however, there appears to cases where it is easy to identify with the abused child. This is closely related to Billy, who as we have already seen, was abused throughtout his child. One of his most profound quotes was that he "didn't really expect his father and mother to stay dead"(qtd. on 222). He had been a failure his whole life, why would he expect this event to succeed? His father and mother had so ingrained in him that they would always be better than him, that I'm sure a small part of him would believe they would have some master plan to come back to life and put him in his place.

While They Slept Part 4

The story continues to talk about how and why Billy would so cruelly murder his parents. It talks about, as he aged, problems began to show in his grades and had social problems. Linda, his mother, is described as " had persevered a fantasy of an entirely different domestic life then the one she had inadvertently created"(147). As someone who had grown up during the 50's where the best thing one could want was a strong and loving family, she obviously felt it was her job to create this, and tried to ignore the myriad problems in her family. She doesn't want to go after her husband, and his alcoholism and domestic abuse, so she goes after her son and daughter in an attempt to assert her authority. She even tries to make Christmas seem real, and the author says "The more unattainable her fantasy of a happy, prosperous family gather round a festive tree seemed, the more fiercely she clung to it...Linda made sure there were a lot of presents under the plastic tree, mostly junk"(151). She wraps plastic junk just to make it seem as though they were a normal family. She has wrapped herself in her delusions, and fails to realize her family is as fake as the Christmas presents she wrapped.
However, some members of their family are aware of what is going on, and are determined to rise above it. Jody, Billy's sister, is described as "As Jody's awareness of her family as ignorant and uncultured grew, so did her determination to transcend her origins"(172). She can plainly see, and as we've seen before, that her parents are not people to be admired. They are people to pity for what has happened to him. Jody is determined to escape this. Her parents now act as examples of what not to do, and every time they do somethign even worse, her determination likely grows even more. She even went to read cheap Harlequin romances. They all follow the same plot, and are nothing more than trashy literature. She reads these though, not for the small enjoyment, but Jody instead says "I wanted them for all the information I could get out of them!"(qtd. on 174). She is obviously desperate to get this information that will help her be a better person, and realizes the only way to do this is through gaining knowledge. This very clearly will help her overcome her problems, and cope with her parent's abuses better than Billy, who may feel that he has no way to escape his parents.

While They Slept Part 3

This part of the book is where the truly tragic stuff occurs when Billy murders his two parents and his eleven year old sister. He had already killed his mother and father, when his sister, Becky, woke up because of the commotion. She says "I'm going down to Mom," Becky told Jody. "I'm not staying up here"(110). She obviously was curious, and being woken up at 12 AM hinders the ability to think rationally. Billy tries to hit her "with the intent of knocking her unconscious ... failing to take into account the fragility of the skill of an eleven-year-old"(112). Although his report from the trial and his current memories differ, it seems to me that he truly did not want to kill her. He knew that it would be a reprehensible act, and surely Becky had not done anything to him as bad as what his parents did. He was probably in a panic and thinking that Becky would tell someone decided to eliminate this potential threat.
Jody as the lone innocent survivor of her family must deal with her guilt in a very different way then her brother. She does however, try to put in into perspective "she measures her loss, individual and personal, against the sweeping tragedies of history, the Holocaust, the Civil War carnage at Antietam, the endless crises on the African continent"(121). This forces her to be humble and try to lessen the impact of this event on her life. By thinking of the worse things that people have gone through, she gains hope that she will be able to survive this, and hopefully flourish. Linda, her mother, on the other hand had different ways of dealing with a drunken womanizing husband. She says "Fundamentalism excused her from the effort of working out her own answers to questions of right and wrong, and it reasured Linda that her long-suffering fidelity would be rewarded even as BIlls's sins earned him a far worse comeuppance"(125). She feels, as many do, that nice people feel last, and that their needs to be severe punishment for people who sin more often. She wants her own piousness to be rewarded, which can lead down to a horrible path where the pious end up sinning more than the sinner.

While They Slept , Part 2

This book continues to follow the story of the Gilley's and what would cause a son to kill both his parents. At this point, we are still following Billy's childhood and it is shocking to me how much he was abused. He eventually gave up and decided to run away, but after 3 weeks returned. His parents were " almost gleeful in his failure... now he would have no choice but to do everything that they told him to do"(67). After this event, I'm guessing Billy would have lost almost all of his self confidence. He had tried to rebel and failed, making it seem as though his parents would always be able to stop whatever he wanted to do. As they say " his sense of self was so impaired that he no longer believed in the possibility of his freedom"(68). He has been traumatized and abused by his parents, but does not have the spirit to rebel as he feels his parents will just be able to stop him. So in his mind the logical connection would be to eliminate his parents, and then he would be able to do whatever he wanted to.
One of the most traumatic moments described in teh book thus far occured at a community pool. Billy was trying to learn to swim with a pair of water wings. Bill ashamed to have a sissy son grabbed him and jumped off the diving board. He would then let go at the lowest point of the dive, leaving Billy to try desperately to swim to the surface. "The hostility-- the malice-- of this "lesson" would have frightened a child who could swim"(87). Bill was so obssessed with getting a "manly" son that he tortured Billy and scarred him certainly for life. It makes perfect sense that "Billy was not only disruptive in the classroom, but also began picking physical fights on the playground"(94). He may have been trying to assert himself and prove to someone that he was worth something. If someone was scared of him, then at least tehy respected him, which was way more than you could say of his father.

The After Effects of the War

Lincoln as a president after the war was probably exhausted. He had led his country through war against their fellow countrymen and brought them out the other side. This event probably defined the rest of his life as he struggled with it. Guezlo writes, "toward the larger, more haunting, question of the war's meaning"(415). He is wise enough to realize the war is not close to being over. The bottom half of the country hates his guts, and he has to somehow convince them to reunite. Much like World War 2, Lincoln knew he had to lay the blame on everybody, so as not to cause resentment. Guezlo writes "The north and South were to be weighed and judged in spite of the seeming moral superiority of slavery's opponents"(418). He continue to make the right decision and follow his own guidance, as the evils of the world try and drag him down to their level. This perserverance of true ideals is why he is celebrated today.
This transformation was speeded up by his untimely death. After he got assasinated by John Wilkes Booth he quickly aquired the sympathy of the entire country. He was eulogized as " one of the most faultless examples of true manhood even prominently exhibited to the world"(440). This beautiful speech speaks wonders of how the country had grown to love and honor the president who had led the country to war. They realize that he did make the right decisions, and so they recognized it. Insterestingly, " And almost irresitably, he was compared to Jesus Christ"(440). This claim is truly remarkable, and made even more so by the fact we were a very Christian nation. They had elevated him to the highest statues they could think of, as they thought he truly belonged on the highest pedestal out there.

Lincoln Further Endures the Civil War

One of the most amazing parts about Lincoln, was how he deliberated carefully over each decision he made. This careful thinking allowed him to weigh both sides of the argument, bringing reason to a country that was sorely in need of it. Orville Browning, a senator, remarked "he was thinking deeply of what a higher power than sought to bring about by the great events then transpiring"(Guezlo 325). Lincoln appears to have turned to God as he realized the bloodshed and carnage that came with the war. One often thinks of distressed, diseased, individuals turning to God as their last hope, but this was different. He worries so much about his country he is able reconcile with God. Lincoln writes, "God could give the final victoy to either side any day, yet he has not"(327). He feels that God is powerless, and unable to help him, when he obviously should be. This obviously causes great stress within him, because the almighty seems to unable to do anything.
Easily one of the most famous parts of Lincoln's career was The Emancipation Proclimation. Freeing the slaves was symbollic for the civil war, and is now widely regarded as one of the most glorious parts of his presidency. However, he was unsure of how it would turn. He remarked that he knew it "was right" but "feared the effects upon the border states"(352). He is no fool, and we can see he obviously thinks through this decision, and decided to make the right choice. It was a risky gamble, as his position in the war was shaky, but he had to do what he believe to be the true decision. Maybe the only reason why he stayed on as president was his brilliant campaigning mind. The author writes "a large part of that poplarity grew out of the skill with which Lincoln himself managed the newspapers"(365). He realized that the rigth choices are not always going to make you celebrated and sometimes you have to know how to work the system, and not be upset if it works in a different way. You must adapt to the circumstances.

Abraham Lincoln and his Rise to the Presidency

The one aspect we are all familiar when it comes to Abraham Lincoln, is that he was one of the most successful presidents in US history. What some may not know, is that it was almost accidental, and it was an extremely surprising event that he even got nominated by the Republican party. Lincoln himself say he accepted the nomination because it was "thrown upon him and he considered it was my duty"(246). This shows how Lincoln had greatness thrust upon him, much like the classic hero in the timeless hero-quest pattern. While this might seem to be a typical political statement of false humility, it was acknowledged that everyone in the country was "equally curious, not to say puzzled and apprehensive, about Lincoln"(246). He was a relative unknown, which further emphasized his humble origins, and sudden rise to greatness. He was not a lifetime senate member, running for election because he knew he had connections with the people in control. This is the classic American ideal of rising above your current status through hard work and diligence, and what better person to embody it than the President of America.
What is also an interesting truth about Lincoln that they bring up was his famous cabinet full of his political rivals. This was a revolutionary idea in its own concept as it meant stocking your office with people who actively disagreed with you. However, he may not have listened to his enemies as much as he has been given credit for. One of his cabinet member is quoted as saying "he never consulted his cabinet. He said they all disagreed so much he would not ask them -- he depended on himself -- always"(274). So for Lincoln's code of ethics he was trying to follow himself, and there was little room for outside opinion. This makes Lincoln seem much more temperamental and more following what he believed as compared to what was truly the right thing to do at the time. Another thing that may blemish Lincoln's perfect record would be his famous authorization "to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus for the public safety"(280). This was done to prevent Maryland from seceding to the South and while that may have seemed paramount at the time, it now seems like a tarnish on someone who was supposed to defend freedom. It supports the idea that Lincoln was not perfect, but someone who had to make rash decisions without knowing all the information. This just means he was a human, and we can not let this one small incidence scar our image of him.

Abe Lincoln: The Budding Politician

The beginning of this book surprised me a bit, because Lincoln is shown having more against slavery on economic and political grounds than actual moral grounds. But now we begin to see how Lincoln has transformed himself into the politician we remember. "And so, for the first time, Lincoln began to speak, not in terms of motives, but in certain natural moral relationships, which slavery violated" (188). This, however, appears to be more a political move than anything done from the heart. In fact, " My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia"(189). This shows how Lincoln has no clear idea about what should be done when the slaves were to be freed, and thought of them more as something to be opposed against than actual people and human beings. He was more concerned with what they represented than who they actually were. He seems to think of slaves more highly as it goes on and proclaimed slavery was "fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw"(197).
The ethical decisions that Lincoln faces during this section of his life. He now has to fiercely debate against Mr. Stephen Douglass who loved to antagonize Lincoln about his beliefs. Lincoln was unable to fully disagree and say his beliefs about slavery, since "no Illinois politician could hope to survive in the white racial supremacist climate of Illinois."(222) He was torn between winning the election, and being able to tell what he truly believed. He had to carefully balance his position and try not to offend anybody, much like politicians of today. When he finally felt comfortable to make that argument " Lincoln's attack on the immorality of slavery moved to the center of his arguments. Douglass is aghast and sees that "questions of morality were purely personal and had no place on the public square debate"(226). Lincoln sees differently and this is one of the most important decisions for him. He no longer decides to debate slavery as economically unjust or such, but instead is making it his central argument that it is immoral. This issue would later go on to define him as a person, and his ethical choice now had far-reaching consequences.

Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln : Redeemer President. Boston: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2002.

AMS Q1

Many characters in All of My Sons base their actions on what they perceive society as needing. Joe Keller even admits "For you, a business for you!" (70). He knowingly shipped out defective parts that would kill other men as long as his son could be happy withe the business. He greatly values family over society as a whole and he has taken it to an absurd extreme. In the end however, he begins to realize that in fact society is like an extended family. He observes " Sure, he was my son. But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess there were, I guess they were" (83). He has gradually realized that there is no different connection between family and society. Any one of those men could have been in his family, and it happened to Chris. However, there is no real difference between Chris and those other men that were killed. Joe Keller finally decides to believe this when they get the letter from Larry. Larry threatens to kill him, and that is what finally convinces him that society and family really are no different. Kate on the other hand is not convinced, and all they should be is sorry. She remarks " What more can we be!"(84). She is not convinced that this letter changes anything, and that all they should do it be sorry. Larry was a horrible tragedy, but she believes her overall behavior should not really change because of him.
I believe that needs of your family is often more important than the needs of society. Your family not only depends on you, but what you do much more greatly affects it. So you become an important part of it. Try as hard as you want, and you're unlikely to be able to change society. However, you're family can very easily be changed for the better through your efforts. This makes it paramount to help them as the potential is so much greater. However, helping society should not be sacrificed for that. Society is also important, if a bit harder to relate to, due to the lack of physical people you can know. Society is much easier to harm, as you don't feel like you're harming anyone. It's more of a vague object that people think of, and this allows them to justify all the wrongs that happen to society as a whole.

Miller, Arthur, and Christopher Bigsby. All My Sons : A Drama in Three Acts. New York: Penguin Classics, 2000.

Abraham Lincoln: The Young Adult Years

This week I read a section in my book about Lincoln as he was growing up in his young adult years. Lincoln after a series of failed debts in New Salem, became a successful legislator in the Illinois state legislature and a very respectable practicing lawyer. One of Lincoln's friends is quoted as saying "he could write out a speech... and then repeat it word for word without any effort on his part"(Guelzo 84) to show how much of an amazing memory he had. This skill seems to have helped him out a lot in later years, as he could recognize faces and dates to help put people at ease. It also furthers the theme that there was a lot more to this man than most people think of, and he really was quite the intellectual. His choice to pick being a lawyer as a career was also an interesting choice, due to his rather humble roots. "To truculent Democratic yeoman and workers, this made lawyers appear as the secret trades union of the markets, bemystifying honest farmers and urban workingmen and winning enormous fee"(Guezlo 96). This quote on the other hand shows how the average person, as they do now, despises lawyers and sees them as confusing and unnecessary. Lincoln on the other hand wanted to further and support the law, and being a lawyer is the most common occupation for politicians.
One of the most interesting parts I found was how the book describes Lincoln as a religious skeptic. Lincoln frankly said "My father was a member of the Baptist Church, but I am not"(Guezlo 116). This seems very different from the person we think of as president. It seems even more unlikely that a person who had said that could be elected to the presidency. Even now there is only one person in Congress who openly says he does not believe in God. Lincoln himself realized this problem and and admitted it was "a tax of considerable per cent. upon my strength throughout the religious community"(Guezlo 116). He was however not a complete atheist, but instead more of a religious skeptic. It is extremely impressive that he managed to still get election to the Illinois State legislature with this type of handicap, and is really a testament to his amazing political expertise.

Abraham Lincoln

My biography is about the one and only Abraham Lincoln and how we contributed to society in general. Allen C. Guezlo has so far done an extremely good job with illustrating how society has evolved during the early years of America and how this influenced Lincoln. In the introduction he also compared him to Jefferson and how he differed from his supposed idol. Jefferson believed heavily in an agrarian society. It also showed how there is actually tons of literature and ideas being spread in the early days of America. After all, "republicanism infected Americans with the conviction that everyone should have access to learning"(22). This is counter-intuitive to ones image of the early days of America. You think of Daniel Boone, and frontiersmen, instead of a pursuit for ideals that infected the country. This really presents a better view of Lincoln as someone of his time, instead of a rare scholar, in a time of hillbillies. As the book says, Lincoln " is not often thought as an intellectual in an era which, unfortunately, is not often thought of as an arena for ideas"(24-25). This really shows how much of a misconception we have about this time period and how stereotyped it has become. As we think of America it goes from rebellious intellectuals and heroes, to pioneers. There was not obviously this big of a drop off, and the intellectualism of Jefferson and Washington was just not just a one-time event in American history.
The second chapter deals more with how he grew up, as a farm laborer, a character familiar to most Americans. His humble roots is one of the great stories of America and still celebrated today. There are even toys about it, namely, Lincoln Logs. However this book shows how not only did he overcome that, but he also overcame a father is at best unwilling to educate his son. At worst, he flatly prevented it. "Thomas Lincoln was easily irritated when Abraham began to bestow on reading time that his father might have better wanted to see him spend on hire-out labor"(35). However threw some inner desire Lincoln still managed to pursue a career in politics, and managed to self-educate. For all the foibles that most biographies discover about their subject, in an effort to sell books, this just seems to show how great of a man Lincoln was. He was amiable to all, and believed truly that liberty was a gift to be given to all.

Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln : Redeemer President. Boston: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2002.

Debt and it Consequences

For this week I decided to read an article about debt and how it's perceived in culture. It talked about how debt is an intrinsic part of who we are as a people, and that it is somehting we must come to terms with. For example, "in Aramaic, the language that Jesus himself spoke, the word for “debt” and the word for “sin” are the same"(2).
I thought this article was very interesting, seeing as how our country is ten trillion dollars in debt, and that we're still in a deficit. I find this despicable, as does everyone I know, yet we still continue to go deeper in debt. People just can't face the fact that we will have to raise taxes, or severely lower the budget to get out of it.
I also thought it was interesting because of how debt is shown as such a horrible thing in most of historical literature. For example, "hell, in Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” is the place where absolutely everything is remembered by those in torment" (3). This really shows how those that are unfamiliar with capitalism can be scared of taking someones money using just your word to say you'll pay it back later. Debt is also an important part of a capitalistic society, but it is important to remember their misgivings, in that you should only go into debt for what you can for sure pay back later.

Analog vs. Digital

For my reading this week, I chose to do an article about an upstart young company that's trying to make a digital video camera that is as good as one with film. This camera is known as the red1 The founder of the company however, is the billionaire founder of Oakley. It manages to have "4,096 lines of horizontal resolution—"4K" in filmmaker lingo—and 2,304 of vertical" (1). This is the same as analog recordings, however digital cameras are much easier to use and operate with. One of the greatest successes of the Red1 was how it can also allow the camera operator to blur certain areas of the screen, and use various other techniques that usually only analog can do. The best part? The Red1 sells for $17,500, while most analog cameras rent for $25,000 a month.
I'm a pretty big novice to the area of high quality film-making. However this seems like a win-win situation. Everyone saves money, and ultimately has an easier job. Its just yet another example of an invention rendering another technology obsolete. One of the most of the revealing things, is that "Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings himself, bought four" (2). The Lord of the Rings series is one of my favorite of all time, so Peter Jackson endorsing these cameras pretty much signifies to me how good these are. If these cameras do not become the standard in the next ten years, I will be very surprised, as it seems inevitable from this article. The only negative thing mentioned about them is that they don't produce a tangible result like film. This complaint seems ridiculous, as film itself can't be exposed to light or scratches, making it much more likely to fail than a hard drive.

Behar, Michael. "Analog Meets Its Match in Red Digital Cinema's Ultrahigh-Res Camera." Wired. 18 Sept. 2008. 23 Oct. 2008

The Photo

The Lies of Commericials

Throughout this election, TV commericals have been one of the big ways to convince voters. And of course there have been misleading facts, quotes taken out of context, and sometimes even outright lies. Supposedly, McCain started lying to voters in tv commercials, but "Mr. Obama began his own run of advertisements on radio and television that have matched the dubious nature of Mr. McCain’s more questionable spots" (1). For example one ad claims that McCain is very against stem cell research, when in fact but broke with President Bush to consistently support it starting in 2001 but he "broke with President Bush to consistently support it starting in 2001 "(1).

In my opinion, these commercials are ridiculous. In an ideal world people would be able to learn the truth, and thus would be unaffected by these commercials. However that is not how it is. People are influenced by these commercials, so lying into them is unforgivable. Particularly Obama, who's ads have "taken a decidedly negative tone in the past few weeks" (2). This is coming from someone who is supposedly above politics. Joe Trippi, a longtime Democratic strategist calls it "an eye for an eye"(3). This is outrageous. Because McCain, his opponent is doing it, that makes it ok for Obama to do it? One is supposed to stay above sinking to the enemies level. Fortunately there are some great resources I have found online likePolitifact that help people see who is lying and when. I feel bad for our nation when I see politicians lying, but I feel even worse when I see that it is an effective strategy.

Rutenberg, Jim. "Dubious Claims in Obama’s Ads Against McCain, Despite Vow of Truth." New York Times. 25 Sept. 2008. 9 Oct. 2008 .

The new Google Phone.

I decided to read an article about the newly announced HTC Dream from T-Mobile. The most interesting part of this phone is that features Google's long-awaited Android operating system. This operating system is completely open source, and anyone can develop applications for it. Of course the obvious comparison, would be between it and the iPhone, the most ubiquitous smart phone out there.
I'm always a big fan of Google, and the Android operating system is no exception. While many of the iPhone's best apps cost "typically anywhere from $0.99 to $9.99"(1) and have to get approved by Apple, all of Android's apps will be completly open to anyone, and free to download. This kind of openness is what the cell phone industry needs, as currently their is a stranglehold on tinkering, as evidenced by all the users trying to "jailbreak" their iPhone.
The one problem I can see is that it may not attract enough buyers to justify the Andriod OS. Let's face it, the iPhone is one slick gadget. While, "the HTC Dream will likely have a more staid look that lacks the iPhone's panache"(2). There's no way Google can put in the polish that Steve Jobs put into the iPhone, which may make it unpopular.
In the end, I'm just hoping Andriod takes off, and makes smart phones more like computers in that it is open to anyone and everyone.

Hamilton, Anita. "Android: Google's Dream, Apple's Nightmare?" Time Inc. 22 Sept. 2008. 27 Sept. 2008 .

Shai Agassi in Wired

The Article

In Driven: Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road, Daniel Roth writes about Shai Agassi and his plan to revolutionize the auto industry by making electric cars finally viable. He plans to combine the car industry with the cell phone industry by making charging stations where people can sign up for plans of certain miles.

I greatly enjoyed this article. It brought up many new ideas I had not considered. For example, how they would "buy their car from the operator, who would offer steep discounts, perhaps even give the cars away. The profit would come from selling electricity—the minutes"(2 Roth). Obviously we all want eletric cars, as they would keep us off foreign oil, and in the process be much better for the environment. The most interesting thing about it, is that everyone else seems to think that he can do it as well. He got $200 million, making it the fifth largest start up of all time, in less than a year. People seem to really believe in him, which makes this seem much more achievable and not idealistic dreams.
However not everything is sunshine and dancing chipmunks.This kind of effortt would take a serious amount of national cooperation, unheard of since World War 2. I don't think people would be able to unite over this, and get rid of all gas stations and put electric card charging stations everywhere. It seems to be lacking in concrete action. It might work in the smaller countries, such as Israel that can handle such a full-scale national undertaking, but in the USA I can just not see this happening.

Roth, Daniel M. "Driven: Shai Agassi's audacious plan to put electic cars on the road." Wired. 18 Aug. 2008. .

Operation Blogification has begun

Today the world experiences the magic that comes with new technology. Namely, I now have a blog. The world can hear my wonderful thoughts and make snide comments about it that ultimately, are completly baseless. Every technology comes with critics, but I feel confident that this blog will soon have a full caravan of readers, following my every word. To all those reading, Hello, and welcome to my blog.