Expanding Ideas

Euthanizing Surplus Animals

Samigirl — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:05:28 +0000

I just read a story about a “federal proposal to euthanize wild horses as a way to deal with their surplus numbers.” Here are a few excerpts from the article to state the two viewpoints:

Ranchers view mustangs as competition for forage on the range. Agency officials said they stepped up the roundups in recent years because of ongoing drought that has left dwindling forage and water for the mustangs. Horse advocates insist the action was taken to placate ranchers.

Federal officials said they’re faced with tough choices because wild horses have overpopulated public lands in the West and they no longer can afford to care for the number of animals that have been rounded up.

There are an estimated 33,000 wild horses in 10 Western states. The federal agency has set a target appropriate management level of horses at 27,000. About another 30,000 horses are in holding facilities, where most are made available for adoption. Last year about $22 million of the entire horse program’s $39 million budget was spent on holding horses in agency pens. Next year the costs are projected to grow to $26 million with an overall budget that is being trimmed to $37 million.

Lacy Dalton, president and co-founder of the Let ‘Em Run Foundation horse advocacy group, urged the agency to consider alternative solutions. They include efforts to step up birth control and legislation to provide tax breaks to large landowners willing to let horses roam on their property, she said.

“The American people have spoken – they want to preserve these wild horses,” said Dalton. “They are symbolic of the wildness and freedom and independent spirit of the West. We need to find ways to save them without being a burden on taxpayers,” she added.

The entire story here:

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/plan-to-euthanize-horses-spurs-debate/

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What are your feelings on this issue?

Samigirl

I-5 Jam

Shown — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:00:56 +0000

You may have noticed something while driving on I-5 northbound. There comes a point when traffic seems to slow down and stop on occasions. However, once you cross over the I-5 bridge, traffic mysteriously disappears.

There has been some discussion concerning the I-5 bridge. They plan to construct a new one in hopes of cutting down traffic. However, one of the ideas that they are passing around is to make it into toll bridge. Think about this for a second. A toll bridge. Their goal is to decrease the ammout of traffic in that area and they plan to change the bridge into something that you have to stop for to get across. Now I may not be an expert on the whole thing, but my experience with toll bridges have shown me that toll bridges create lines, lines cause stopping, stopping causes slower moving cars, and slower moving cars create traffic. I must be missing something, because I thought that is what they are trying to get rid of.

What are your feelings on the idea of a toll bridge, or the new bridge all together? Do you think that it will decrease or increase the traffic problems in that area?

-Shown

Abortion

Samigirl — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:22:03 +0000

Ok, so since this blog seems dead, maybe a good ol’ standby discussion about one of the most controversial issues in the country can revive it.

All aspects of abortion: Legality, morality, government sponsorship, the whole shebang. If this doesn’t bring the board back to life, nothing can.

Hit it with your best shot. Do it. I dare you.

Sami H.

Tip Tax

Samigirl — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:23:16 +0000

The question is quite simple: Should there be a tax on tips? Should they be classified as a source of income, or as a gift?

Comics on the big screen

Shown — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:46:34 +0000

As you all know, comics have made their way onto the big screen. In this day and age, we get to seesuperheroes such as X-men, Spiderman, Daredevil, Elektra, Superman, The Fantastic Four, Batman, Ironman, and, coming up next, The Incredible Hulk (Then again, it’s been done once before). These movies have even inspired a movie in the same category as the Scary Movie series (Superhero Movie) and an interesting looking movie featuring a homeless superhero (“Hancock” starring Will Smith). Some of these movies have been really good, some really bad, but they have all made a point to bring back the heroes from the earlier days. Personally, I enjoy them. They bring the Hollywood treatment to characters that many people recognize, which I believe helps bring them to life. However, some of these movies did not do as well.

What are you opinions on movies based off of comics?

-Shown

Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?

Sean — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:55:03 +0000

“On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is “unequivocal,” and that human activity has “very likely” been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had “likely” played a role.”

as quoted from the New York Times online article: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html

I know this topic has been beaten to death over the years, and plenty of us are tired of hearing it in the same old manner. I encourage you to do your own research, and bring your findings here. Let us set up a miniature panel on Global Warming.

Is it real?

What are the short term and long term effects?

Did we cause it? Or is it a natural occurrence?

Did we just speed things up?

I want to hear what you have to say; let us try to answer every one of these questions, free from political and religious viewpoints; based solely on facts and logic.

-Sean R.

The Right to Parent

Samigirl — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:26:50 +0000

I’ve often heard it proposed that all prospective parents should be required to take a test to become eligible for procreation, and some should not be allowed to at all. Pro-testers site instances of child neglect and outright stupidity or ignorance on the parents’ part, and also types of people who they believe should never be allowed to procreate, such as people who have no social or relational skills whatsoever. Anti-testers site the fact that not everyone who becomes one chooses to be a parent, and so a test would solve nothing. People have a God-given right to become parents should they choose that path.

My query: your thoughts. Is this all a joke, or do you really think that a parenting test would solve some of the parenting problems in society?

Sami H.

Empty Pockets, Empty Tanks

Shown — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:53:44 +0000

There used to be a time when the amount of gas was greater then the amount of money you paid for it. This is no longer the case. At more then $4.00 a gallon, gas has reached a record high, yet still it continues rising. The increase of gas prices has greatly effected out country. For example, we can not go on long trips without trading in our own organs for cash. This is outrageous. It was outrageous when gas was $2.00 a gallon, it was outrageous when gas was $3.00 a gallon, and now it is beyond outrageous. The biggest problem we have is that we depend on gas. We can’t just boycott using it. Sure, we could take the bus, carpool with others, or even ride a bike, but it still uses gas to take the bus and a bike isn’t very efficient for long-distance travel. Are gas prices holding us back from advancement? Or are they forcing us to move forward and research different fuel sources?

-Shown

Will the boom in the Video Game industry last?

smbock — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:51:46 +0000

I had a hard liner political topic lined up for today, but I decided ive done enough politics for a bit. So 50 years ago no one even knew what a “video game” was. Since then, the industry has grown and grown, starting with the virtual tennis-like game, Pong, expanding today to games with graphics that make them seem more real then not. Every period of human history has been made into a video game, and countless stories have been made. Every new game has new things to do, new features, improved graphics. But eventually, you cant get any better graphics, and all the features have been done. Games are beginning to just be repeats of others (WW2 shooters anyone?), as all the ideas are running out. Will the video game industry eventually collapse due to this, or will new fresh ideas that we never expected keep popping out of the woodwork to keep it alive?

-Stephen B.

Where Will Technology Be in 5 Years?

Sean — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:52:51 +0000

Ok readers, this is a topic with a bit of a lighter note;

I want to know where you think technology will be in 5 years. Given this example of nVidia placing a computer…on a chip:

NVIDIA Tegra Computer System

So just how small, how fast, how powerful will they be? Terminator? or Mac?

You decide

-Sean R.