A World We Dare To Imagine Part I

After reading this quote, one way I would like to help make the world a better place would be to help find more renewable sources for our energy. Currently in the United States, the majority of our energy is created from fossil fuels, such as petroleum, natural gas, and coal. When these three are burned, they emit greenhouse gases, which are harmful to the environment. Now we are in the process of increasing our renewable energy resources (such as wind, solar, and hydro power) which is good, but there are still a lot of areas where this isn't the case. For example, the majority of China's power is created through coal burning, making it the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. There are areas in China where residents have to wear masks to protect themselves from the air pollution, which is crazy to think about. I think if we could reduce our reliance on fossil fuels for energy creation, the world would definitely be an improved place.

Article Post

I read the article about GMO foods, and I found it pretty interesting. The article discusses the impact of genetically engineered crops on our health as well as the environment. According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, they are completely harmless. They came to this conclusion by reviewing more than 900 studies studies and data over the last 20 years, when genetically modified crops first became a thing. They stated that GE crops save farmers in the U.S. money, but they didn't appear to increase crop yields.

I find this article and topic pretty interesting, mainly because of my mom. She has always tried to avoid GMO foods for herself, doing a lot of her shopping at places like Whole Foods and making a habit of purchasing products that have that "GMO-free" badge on them. Because of her, I've always been under the impression that they weren't as good for us as non-GMO food. But even if they are not bad for us, I don't see how they can be as good for the environment. For example, the article talks about how farmers spray herbicides on the herbicide resistant plants to kill surrounding weeds. I would imagine that still isn't great for the environment.

Personally, I think that even if one wanted to eat only GMO-free foods, it'd be pretty difficult, considering how much of our food contains genetically modified ingredients. I did read about a law that just passed stating that food packages will have to carry a symbol that indicates whether or not the food contains GMOs, so that should make it a little bit easier. Either way, the article stating that GMO foods are safe to eat makes me feel a little bit better about eating them.

A Fun Car Project

I often find myself getting bored of my car if it's kept looking exactly the same for too long. I don't know why, but I just always have to mess with it. My most recent example of this took place not too long ago. In my car, the interior trim pieces that surround the climate controls and shifter are normally a flat black color. Since the majority of the car's interior is black, I decided I wanted to break that up a bit, so I bought some vinyl to wrap those trim pieces and give that area some contrast.

For those of you that don't know, vinyl wrap is essentially a sticker. If you heat it up enough, you can shape it to almost any surface you can think of. Vinyl wrapping the exterior of cars has actually become a pretty popular trend over the last few years, mostly because it is completely reversible if you don't like the result, but it also can be significantly cheaper than a quality paint job and still look just as good. Since I had never done anything like it before, I wanted to start small, so the interior trim pieces were a good place to experiment with.

The project took a lot more time than I had first predicted. To take the pieces off of the center console, I had to take the radio and the climate control module out, leaving a gaping hole in my car's dashboard. But after roughly 5 hours of patience, I had successfully wrapped both of the pieces and I was pretty happy with the result. After doing this project, my main takeaways are to be patient, and if the vinyl isn't contouring to the shape of whatever object you are trying to wrap, just heat it up with a heat gun (or even a hair dryer) and it will become pliable enough to work with. I included a picture of the finished result below.

Genius Of Money Interview

The interview that I found the most interesting in The Genius of Money was the one conducted with the anonymous donor. I like that the donor wants to donate, but doesn't feel the need to reveal their name. It shows that they care about actually benefiting whatever cause they're donating to, rather than donating for the sake of making themselves look better. The interview discusses how donating anonymously is considered to be one of the highest forms of philanthropy, and I admire that.

I was really interested in the discussion about how they did not really want to become a philanthropist at first. They were However, they were fortunate enough to be in a position to help others, so they felt that it was their responsibility to help others. The donor refers to this as "Bodhicitta", which means the enlightened mind in their native language. Being in such a position, the donor feels it would be irresponsible to not help out.

Another thing I found intriguing was the talk about the paradigm shift that we go through growing up. When we are younger, especially as teenagers, we feel that we know more than our parents. Eventually we realize that that is not always the case. The Mark Twain quote about how it was amazing how much his parents learned as he grew up made me laugh. I feel that I can somewhat relate to this situation with my parents, and they love to remind me about it.