IR Blog Post 3 - Autoblog

Automobile Magazine names 2011 All-Stars

Automobile magazine has recently come up with a list of the top cars for 2011. The list includes everything from sports cars to minivans. The vehicle ranked number 1 for 2011 is the BMW 3 series. It is also interesting to note that only 3 out of the ten cars in the list are American cars. Why have foreign cars become so much more popular? Why does a Hyundai share the same list as a porsche? Time magazine has a good slideshow of the best 2011 cars.

IR Blog Post 3 - biggovernment.com

Death Panels Begin: Reaction to FDA's Decision to begin Rationing

The FDA has said that it would ration access to the late stage breast cancer drug Avastin. The FDA is concerned about side-effects that the drugs may have on the women that use it. Congressmen and women have lambasted the decision. Rep. Kay Granger says that she will commit herself to expanding access. Why did the FDA interfere with the private market when there clearly is a demand for these drugs? Why is the FDA able to unilaterally able to make decisions without congress? An article on healthmad.com describes the situation in the UK where the drug was previously banned. Avastin can extend the lives of terminal cancer patients for three years.

IR Blog Post 3 - New York Times Books

Juan Williams Signs Two-Book Deal With Crown

Juan Williams plans to write a book about the importance of free speech in America. He was fired from his job as a veteran reporter for NPR after saying on The O'Reilly Factor that the sight of people in Muslim garb on airplanes makes him nervous. Many believe that the move infringed on William's freedom of speech. His first book will argue that the American people benefit from a debate on hot political/religious issues. One question I have is whether NPR will ever apologize for its decision to fire Juan Williams. Will he be more successful as a writer and pundit than as a reporter for NPR? Juan williams writes his take on the firing on foxnews.com. "I was fired for telling the truth"

IR Blog Post 2 - New York Times Books

Do Zombies Eat Ivy? The Undead Reach Academia

Zombie movies have had a great amount of appeal in the popular culture. They are also catching on in academia. There is now a zombie survival guide and a zombie version of Pride and Prejudice. Some are about serious topics but use the zombie title for appeal. In February, "Theories of International Politics and Zombies" will come out. Are the authors writing these books for serious purposes or just to capitalize on zombies' popularity? This link shows many books about zombies.

IR Blog Post 2 - Autoblog

Mazda Celebrates Turning 90, looks back at logos

The Japanese automaker Mazda turns 90 this year, but it has been making cars since 1936. Since then, the company has used five different logos. Mazda is headquartered in Hiroshima City, Japan. The logo started off as only the text "Mazda". The current logo, dating back to 1997, uses a styled letter "M" on its cars. Why did Mazda change its logo so many times while other companies have maintained theirs for brand recognition? What were the difficulties with each logo around the world? Another website here provides a  detailed history of each Mazda logo.

IR Blog Post 2 - The Blaze

Wis. Hostage Taker Dies from Self-inflicted Gunshot Wound

On November 29th, 15 year old Marinette High School Sophomore Samuel Hengel stormed into his history class with a .22 caliber and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. His classmates and teacher tried to keep him calm throughout the whole ordeal. They made small talk with him. At 10:44 AM, he shot himself and police stormed into the classroom. Hengel was taken to the hospital and died soon after. What could have motivated this boy to kill himself, especially in a school? Was he initially planning to murder other students. Allvoices.com says that the boy did not want to hurt others, based on interviews with students that were in the room.

IR Blog Post 1 - New York Times Books

This Old World

The blog post is a review of the book "Shock of Gray" by Ted Fishman. It is about the aging of populations and the implications that this has on the global economy. The populations of the elderly will increase around the world into the future. This, combined with declining birthrates, will mean that industrialized nations will require foreign workers to allow economic growth. For example, five percent of Ecuador's population lives in Spain to care for that country's elderly. What real economic impacts will this have on the everyday lives of Americans? How can the author be so sure that technology will not balance out the negative effects of an elderly population?  Salon.com writes about the book. They disagree with the notion that older people are necessarily bad.

IR Blog Post 1 - autoblog.com

Report: Ford Explorer orders nearly double expectations

Ford dramatically changed the body design of the 2011 Ford Explorer from the body-on-frame construction to a unibody structure. Ford is reporting that the change toward a crossover design is not turning away buyers. Ford received about 15,000 orders for the Explorer, doubling their original projections. Jason Mase, Ford's manager of utility vehicles, said that most buyers don't care if the Explorer is a crossover or an SUV. How will the overall sales measure up to past years Explorer sales? Why were Ford's initial projections so inaccurate? The LeftLane News Blog writes that Ford has changed the design of the Explorer in order to appeal to buyers of crossover SUVs.

IR Blog Post 1 - biggovernment.com

Please Don't Profile: Muslim Foreign-Born Teen Tries to Blow-up Christmas Tree Lighting

A Somali-born 19 year old man named Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested on Friday after attempting to set off a bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. The attack was actually a set-up by the FBI. He had communicated with Federal agents in constructing the explosive, which ended up being a fake. The White House spokesman says that President Obama was aware of the attack. When Mohamud attempted to dial his cell phone for the bomb to explode, Federal agents arrested him. Mohamud repeatedly screamed "Allahu Akbar!" as he was taken into custody. How long will Mohamud go to jail for? Are there other Muslim terrorists connected with him? Carl Cannon, the editor of politicsdaily.com wrote a blog post about the root causes of this attack. I agree with his contention that Muhamud's attack originated with Somali radicalism.

The Blogs that I am Following

Arts and Academia: New York Times Books http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Books.xml
History, Politics, and Current Events: reason.com (a libertarian blog site) http://feeds.feedburner.com/reason/Articles
Sports, Entertainment, and Leisure: Autoblog http://feeds.autoblog.com/weblogsinc/autoblog

Online Reading

I do a great deal of online reading. I get the majority of news from Yahoo.com, The Drudge Report, and the Huffington Post. I typically read weekly columnists including Charles Krauthammer, Pat Buchanan, John Stossel, and Paul Krugman.

Reading for Pleasure vs. Reading for Meaning

     The difference between reading a book for pleasure and reading one for meaning is that when reading a book for pleasure we focus on plot details and not necessarily the meaning behind those details. These books can also be nonfiction where there may not be a plot. In this case the information gathered is part of reading for pleasure. When reading a book for meaning, we look beyond the story and see the hidden meaning that is between the lines.

     The similarities between the two are that in both, the reader knows both the beginning and the end of the story. A book that I read for pleasure was Arguing With Idiots and a book that I read for meaning was Life of Pi. One book that has both is To Kill a Mockingbird.