Tuesday, June 16, 2015

My Correspondence With Suffolk County Water Authority

 
 Yesterday I sent an email to SCWA (Suffolk County Water Authority) requesting information about well and pumphouse locations, because that information isn't listed anywhere. This morning a woman responded avoiding my question and when I asked her why I can't have access to the water information, which is a public commodity, she responded with a very emotionally triggered response, treating me as if I was an idiot (which I took as an attack), even though I had said I was a highschool student writing a report.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

My Views On Journalism

The Journalist: a distributor of information. One could very rightly say that they have an immensely important job. Journalists are relied upon by the public for accurate information on local and world events, both present and past. This is extremely important because we all know today that ignorant people are easier to control then educated people. This is, unfortunately, what the “mainstream” media is accomplishing. Withholding information, which is leading to growing ignorance in our society.    


Friday, February 27, 2015

The Big Bad Banks


 "Who's afraid of the big bad banks, the big bad banks, the big bad banks..."  Before we get to the issue of who's afraid of the big bad banks, first let's clarify what a bank even is. A bank is an institution that allows you to borrow and deposit money, in it's simplest sense. The difference between a local small bank and a big bank (or corporate bank) is first off the size or amount of those banks across the world, second is how much money they receive from the federal reserve (or other organization used to bail out the banks depending where you are in the world.), and third is what their "connections" are. To be labeled as a big bank first off you have a profit of billions of dollars all made off of interest of the money you lend out, second you have to lend out WAY more money then you actually have in your vaults and rely on others to bail you out when people rush on the bank to withdraw their money (which at this point is no longer there), and finally to basically create money out of thin air and be willing to use underhanded techniques to get what you want.
 The term "like stealing candy from a baby" is one we all know but probably wouldn't carry out, big banks take this saying and turn it into bank practice. In this analogy we are the babies and not our money, but basically our life is the candy, but they have us so entranced we don't realize we're being robbed! When we need money we head to the bank to ask for a loan, this loan has attached interest on it so we have to pay not only what we borrowed but a lot extra. We make the payments in small monthly amounts so we don't think much about it, but as time goes on we might need more loans for other things as these loans stack up we're sucked into a seemingly endless vacuum. The cycle continues, paying our loans not having enough money getting loans to pay our loans, all because we need money. This poses the question "what is money?" in the paradigm we live in it's a necessary element of our lives.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

November - Ban Products From China

 In these modern times it's hard to walk into a store and find a product that doesn't say Made In China (Or the fancy code name they created: P.R.C.- Peoples Republic of China). From Kitchen products to children's toys to clothing, nearly everything sold in stores have been shipped overseas and came from Chinese factories. A day in the life of one of these workers  would probably seem a nightmare to us pampered Americans. Here is an excerpt from an independent lens documentary called China Blue.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Sugar Exposed


 When we think of the word addiction, pictures of drugs and alcohol usually come up, we never suspect anything as innocent as sugar could be an addictive substance as well. According to one website, "Sugar is eight times as addictive as cocaine", while this statistic may or may not be true, it is certain that some people get really hooked on sugar. To help understand how sugar could possible be addictive, here is an excerpt of an article from livescience.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Food Coloring, A Colorful Mistake

 Bright yellow, neon orange, blood red; none of these colors would be possible without the use of synthetic food coloring. Food dye is something that will show up on food labels, but no one ever thinks "Well what could this be made out of?", but you can tell just by looking that these colors are not natural. In fact, most food dyes are derived from petroleum! There are other things that can be used though. If you ever read the back of a product and stumble across the names of three food dyes: cochineal, carmine, or carmanic acid, these dyes are made from the crushed up bodies of a female South American insect called a cochineal insect.
Not only is this absolutely disgusting to think that we could be eating crushed up insects, but it's infuriating to know that this information isn't included on the label! If this isn't enough to make you run screaming away from the very thought of synthetic food coloring, here are some more reasons to quit the colors. There have been at least three studies on the link between the consumption of food dyes and ADHD in children. Despite these studies and bans on 5 food dyes (tartrazine, yellow 6, food red 17, FD&C blue No. 2, and FD&C No. 1)  that were linked to ADHD and cancer in Europe, the FDA continues to allow foods with artificial coloring to be sold without any kind of warning! But wait it get's even worse! According to Wikipedia a food dye banned in Europe called Tartrazine or yellow #5 is allowed in organic food! Despite being a synthetic dye, tartrazine may be legally included in organic foods, because the USDA allows processed foods to be certified organic if they are 95% organic by weight.  Talk about scary! To think that those organic chips you love that are USDA certified could only be 95% organic, the other 5% could literally be anything!


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