A Global Energy Shift - Part Two

            Wind energy is a very fast growing section of the renewable energy it produces no emissions and the wind is free so you have very little running cost the down fall many people say is that they are ugly and they kill birds and bats but studies show that more birds die from cars high rise building and power lines but when there's now wind you're not producing any energy.

            Hydropower is collected what you have water fall into a turbine making it spin and that spins the generator creating energy for people to use.
Wave power is when people use the surface waves of the ocean to create energy by letting it flow in and the wind of the waves flows up and spins a turbine, wave power is still in the making because it is so hard to capture.

            Biomass is the remains of plants and animals being converted to biofuel, biodiesel, and methane through three different processes. Thermal conversion, Chemical conversion, Biochemical conversion.

            Right now the government is just making requirements for car and truck MPG to try to make us use less oil. Here are some cars under $30,000 that get better than 30 mpg Honda Insight Hybrid, Toyota Prius Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid, Chevy Malibu Hybrid, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Saturn Aura Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Mercury Milan Hybrid, Saturn Vue Hybrid.

            Renewable energy is obviously going to be a big part of the future when fossil fuel sources are depleted. It will take a lot of new infrastructure to accommodate these new power sources but they will last us many, many years. As a bonus, they will not produce any, or very little, waste. This is unlike gasoline, or coal, or nuclear energy that are all extremely bad for the environment. Renewable energy is going to be an important part of the future and it is important that we designate more of our efforts to creating infrastructures and generators that support it. (330)

A Global Energy Shift - Part One

            I recently read the book Ishmael, which is kind of a philosophical book about how humans are impacting the environment and the environment laws they are breaking and what how our society came to be like our society. I am also enrolled in AP environmental science, so need I even say, the environment and ways to conserve energy and new resources have been on my mind a lot lately. I was searching the internet and found an website that contained a lot of information on alternative fuel sources and decided that I would write a blog post about some of the new knowledge I have acquired from my class and the website.

            Right now most people are looking towards improving on the cars and trucks that we have like making a longer lasting hybrid, or electric car and some people are even going to CNG or LNG trucks and cars but with the price of getting a CNG or LNG car you're not saving that much on just buying a normal car. The US Consumes about 6.87 billion barrels of oil per year and around 18.83 million barrels per day.

Types of alternative energy being produced are CNG- Compressed Natural Gas, LNG- Liquid Natural Gas, Wind- Windmills, Solar- Sun, Wave- Using the waves to move turbines, Water- Using dams to generate power, Biomass- Burning for energy, Geothermal- Pumping water up from the ground, Nuclear Power- Using sustained nuclear fusion to create power and heat.

            CNG and LNG, Natural Gas is a fossil fuel that is mostly contained of methane, it is one of the cleanest burning fossil fuels you can use it in either compressed form or liquefied form advantages to this is 60-90% less smog producing pollutants, 30-40% less greenhouse gas emissions and its less expensive than gasoline. disadvantages- fewer miles on one tank, limited car type and not really available in most places in the US. (319)

It's Raining Spotted Dogs

I wrote a few blogs at the beginning of the year about the Giant Panda and how it was becoming extinct. I think I also wrote about two other species but they were not extinct, I think one was invasive, but still that is a bit off topic. There are many factors that contributed to the current species that have become endangered; for instance a lot of them are very specific breeders, and so when more and more of them started to disappear, it became even harder to find mates to breed with. I found an article on Yahoo about a zoo that is trying to combat the extremely selective breeding of cheetahs but using dogs. (yes I said dogs)

In a zoo in Los Angeles, there live 19 cheetahs. Four of which have dogs. ….whoa. dogs? Yeah. Dogs. Did you know cheetahs are just big skittish, scaredy-cats? Well, they are. And these dogs help the kitties become more confident. The cats are in danger of becoming extinct because they aren’t breeding as most animals do and they don’t socialize very much. Big breeds of dogs are setting an example for the cats. Most, if not all, dog breeds are very territorial. They stand up for what they want-hold their ground. By introducing these animals, for years, some cheetah enclosures and zoos have therapeutically coaxed cheetahs out of their shells. Cool, huh? I think so. The dogs protect and reassure their cats.

The dogs don’t live with the cheetahs but they spend a lot of time with them. The sleep separately at night and feeding is always separate. Not for the reason you may think though. You may be formulating speculations that the cats might just be taken over by instinct and attack the dog but really, the result isn’t like that. The result you would find is fat dogs and starving cats. Yeah, right. Right? Well the cats are scared. And the dogs keep their ground so the cats’ steak dinner would just be stolen by the dogs. And the dogs regular puppy chow-just left sitting there. I mean, if the dog had his way. (357)

Working Against Rape

               After reading the book The Girl that Played with Fire by Steigg Larsson, a lot of the sex crimes and underground crimes in foreign countries seem to catch my attention. This was obviously because a lot of the book was centered on the sex trade in Sweden. I found an article on NBC News that about how kitchen knives and chili powder were distributed to women all over India to try and help them protect against possible rape that would come from a radical Hindu nationalist party. This act of the knife and chili powder distribution has been named the knife campaign. It was sparked in response to the well known gang rape that lead to a national debate on how to deal with sex crimes. The Shiv Sena party said that they handed out 21,000 three inch blade knives to women in the city and areas nearby. Their plan was to hand out in total 100,000 knives.

               The knife campaign taught many things to women to help them protect themselves. One of them said by the campaign runner Ajay Chaudhari was not to be afraid and fearful to use a knife on an attacker. He also said that a team of nine advocates were prepared to protect the victims in court cases.

                So what was this gang rape event that caused so much awareness and thoughtfulness? It took place on December 16th when a 23 year old female physiotherapy student was beaten and raped on a moving public bus and then was thrown on a busy road harshly. The beating was so severe that it resulted in the student’s death two weeks later. This caused public outrage at the failure of the government in protecting women all over India where rape rates are extremely high in number. In India, one rape report is averagely reported every 20 minutes.

               Women receiving self-defense tools and self-defense training have been a huge response to the terrible happening to the college student. I hope all is well with her family and that they are able to cope. I also hope the rapists are found and taken to court so they won’t do further harm to other women. It scares me how often it happens and makes me realize how badly women have it when having to travel in public in India. Hopefully work is done effectively to reduce the injustice. (398)

Let's Play a Name Game

Every country around the world has different rules, laws, customs, etc. It seems that we are taught to do different things and behave in a certain way that everything else just seems foreign and not important. I’m not sure how exactly I could have been so clueless growing up about all of the laws in different coutries and other customs. I know there are lists of crazy laws  that you can come across in other states but they are merely trivial and usually not enforced. It seems though that my understanding of other customs in the world is now coming more clear than it has ever been. I’m not sure why exactly, maybe I just have more classes relating to other countries than ours, maybe I’m more actively following the news, or maybe I just flat out didn’t care until now. I’m really not sure. But the thing that always seems to shock me when learning about laws in other countries is… how completely stupid their laws can be. I mean, we have some odd laws too I suppose, but theirs just seem to have been made up by someone just trying to create total authority over citizens because they simply feel like it.

An article on Yahoo explains how a mother named her daughter something that wasn’t legal or approved so she wasn’t legally able to use her name. Now, at the age of 15, she has been given permission to use the name of “Blaer” which translates to “light breeze”. The government thought the name was “improper”.

           I think names should be totally free to decide upon. I mean, if you were going to name your child something outlandish like… I have no idea. .. Anna says Swagga Baby. If you really truly wanted to name your child “Swagga Baby”, you might want to rethink your existence and hobbies and whatnot but really, it’s your choice. And hopefully, someday, your child will develop a more... Normal or suitable nickname to go by. But for real, it’s the parents’ choice and who wants to have a bazillion babies in the world with the same generic name. like... Bob. if you only had 10 names to choose from and Bob is the best.. idk what this world has come to. (381)

Crime Has No Age Limit

When I think of people trading or selling drugs I think of men (not to be sexist or anything). I think of gangs, tattooed bodies, criminal records, and maybe even murders. I think of countries like Mexico. But it’s not like these things are required to handle illegal drugs. These are just stereotypes; but what other kinds of people handle illegal drugs? High school teens and college students are also pretty likely culprits. They however, at least most of them, don’t smuggle them into other countries, they just get them off the street and do them at parties, right? What about grandmas? I’ve never thought of a grandmother smuggling drugs into other countries. An article confirmed that grandmas do illegal things too.

A lady from the UK was caught smuggling cocaine into a resort in India. She apparently hid a substantial amount of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase and they found it at the airport. There are countries in this world that have strict drug rules and some just minor punishments. India happens to have strict rules if you offend their rules? Capital punishment. After being tried in India, she was sentenced to death row. 

The lady claims that a gang was threatening to hurt her kids and that is the reason she was smuggling drugs. 

I’m not sure if this lady’s story is true or if there will be any investigation on it. The UK currently has someone on the case trying to work with Indian representatives to lessen her punishment but it looks like they’re not going to budge. They take this crime seriously. If this grandmothers story is true (which I don’t know why it wouldn't be, what would her motive be?) I feel really bad for her. I’m not sure how I would handle the situation but I’m pretty sure that id bring it to the police no matter if they told me they’d hurt my family if I did or not. It is the smartest decision because they could hurt my family no matter what and id gets caught smuggling anyway. I can’t lie or look non-suspicious. (355)

Reliving the Vietnam War

              I found an article on CNN about the effects of Agent Orange on children. Agent Orange was a chemical substance used during the Vietnam War to clear vegetation but it was a ridiculously strong chemical that never should have been released into the environment. Agent Orange still affects war veterans who have developed skin conditions and other problems because of the wide spread usage of it. A small statement before a long series of pictures of children deformed by the chemical reads: “The following photos depict the devastating effects on humans believed to be caused by Agent Orange. Please be aware that the story of these innocent children contains images that some may find unsettling.”

               If you click on this link, you can see the 10 pictures they have posted in a slide show. They wouldn’t allow me to copy and paste the pictures so I settled for the link

              The very first photo is of a happy looking child who is standing up in its crib, holding their self up with their deformed hands. Their hands are more like fists with no distinct fingers but have nails growing out of the stubs. It’s really sad to see. This picture definitely has the impact they wanted for the first photo shown.

                In the third picture, they show a child with flaky skin. It almost looks like they were burned somehow. There aren’t any deformities that you can see, just the horribly dry, brown skin.

               In the fifth picture, a boy is walking in the hall. He doesn’t really have feet. In fact, it looks like someone amputated his legs just below where his knees bend. He appears to be walking on his knees.

              In the ninth picture, you just see jars on shelves… until you look closer. You realize that these jars contain stillborn infants. Its really too hard to even look at.

              There are other pictures in between those of course but these are the few I could distinctly tell what was going on. A lot of these children were abandoned at birth and they live in the hospital they are cared for at. (359)

Too Much to Do, Too Little Time, Not Enough Sleep

                Falling asleep in lectures, hitting the snooze button multiple times in the mornings, the tell-all dark circles around your eyes…sound familiar? According to a Maas, Power Sleep Quiz, these are all symptoms of sleep deprivation. In AP Psych, we learned ALL about sleep and how much everyone should have. I personally think it's funny that people don't expect teenagers to be sleep deprived. I mean, think about it, everything we do is just meant to keep us awake.

                If we want to improve ourselves for college and juice up our college resumes, we take more AP classes and work hard to get good grades, especially if you are in your junior or beginning of senior year of high school. Teachers assign a whole lot of homework in AP classes and if you are taking more than one…good luck living life. Don't get me wrong, it does depend on the classes and if you choose to brush it off but it all eventually accumulates, creating a very long night of studying.

                Social network sites, television, and even music are all distracting to us. I will definitely admit that I spend way too much time on the computer when I have homework. I think the problem is that they are just so addicting to be on and so much more fun than doing the assigned homework. Even hormones in teenage bodies keep us awake longer.

                College kids are even worse. My sister is currently in college and I think she gets around four hours of sleep or less on a normal day. It's simply unhealthy, and then people wonder why college kids resort to drugs, a lot of them having an intended purpose to keep the student awake longer. Who knew that  trying to promote schoolwork also promoted drug use?

                I think that the simple fix to all of this is to tell teachers to limit the amount of homework they give out. If they don't assign as much, then students will get more sleep and actually pay attention in class. I'm sure the teachers would appreciate also the lack of dozing heads lying on desks. (355)

A Traveling Dream

After graduation, I decided that I would go to Europe. Ever since I was a little girl, I have dreamed of seeing the Eiffel Tower and decided that if I hadn’t gone to Europe by the time graduation came around, I would go no matter what. Of course, the idea of letting his daughter go by herself to Europe didn’t really settle well with my father so he will now be joining me…along with my sister and a friend.  I’ve always thought that traveling the world would be so amazing; to see different people, places, architecture, lifestyles, hear different languages, music, and just everything about it. I know that a lot of other people probably have the dream of traveling the world but strangely my brother didn’t. I decided to look up why exactly people want to travel the world in hopes to convince at least one new person that this is a good dream to have.

I stumbled upon a blog that gave five reasons to travel that I strongly agreed with. The first reason was to get inspired. What could be more inspiring than seeing everything and ways and beings? The second reason was to prove to yourself that you can actually do it. I’ve always liked this quote; “The man on the top of the mountain wasn’t just put there.” There is no better feeling in the world to accomplish something that others thought was impossible or improbable. The third was to see and experience different cultures. The fourth reason was of course to eat. I know I will be trying everything on my upcoming trip. The final fifth reason that he listed was to meet new and interesting people. When you stay in the same place for a long time, you become comfortable. Sometimes it is nice to just mix it up. Hopefully this is enough to inspire someone to travel. If these reasons don’t, I don’t know what will. (323)

Belgian Diamond Heist

                I read an article on CNN that covers a diamond heist that occurred Monday night; February 18, 2013. There was apparently fifty million dollars in diamonds that were reported stolen and the possibility of gold and platinum that was just unreported or allegedly or was confidential or something to report of.  Everyone was very surprised by the security breach and based on the facts of the heist they could conclude that these were either ex-military or professionals and that this was an organized crime effort. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured during the heist, only the precious gems were stolen

.

                The heist occurred at the Brussels airport at around eight o clock at night. There were twenty passengers on the aircraft that was scheduled to go from Brussels, Belgium, to Zurich, Switzerland. All of the passengers were unaware of the diamonds in the cargo hold and officials are not certain as to how the thieves knew about the gems. The authorities have determined however that it was not a chance occurrence because the thieves were clearly professionals.

                Eight men in two black vehicles burst through the airport gates and drove up to the aircraft after all of the passengers had boarded the plane. The men were dressed in clothing that resembled police uniforms and held the pilot and copilot at gunpoint while the others unloaded and reloaded the cargo. The whole task was completed in less than three minutes when the men successfully escaped.

                I think that it is crazy to read about these kinds of heists after seeing all of the action movies and everything out there. I think that a lot of the professional robberies on such a large scale are kept confidential so I don’t really hear about these kinds of heists that often.  I hope the authorities catch these robbers and hope to see another article about the progression of this case. (318)

A Testimony of Beliefs - Part 2

                Throughout history, some of the most genius people have held some belief in some form of a deity; for example, Einstein, Plato, Descartes, and Aristotle were all pious men. By simply declaring a belief in these “superstitions,” one does not declare any lack of intellect or civilized manner.

                It is clear from this article that Menken holds a strong disdain for the legitimacy of religious facts. He wrote that “these ideas remain mere rubbish. Not only are they not supported by the known facts; they are in direct contravention of the known facts.” I disagree with this statement; not everything written in the bible, or any other religious text, is completely false. Many things should be open for interpretation and should in fact be questioned; for that is the only way to prove that any are indeed factual. I believe that religious texts do contain fictional, metaphorical, and exaggerated stories that should not all be taken in a literal sense. However, I know that many of the things that are in religious texts have certain legitimacy. The bible for example contains many facts that have been proven by science; it stated the perfect dimensions for a stable water vessel, the fact that matter is made up of invisible particles, and that there are mountains and springs on the ocean floor. These are only a few of the scientifically proven biblical facts.

                It is clear that H.L. Mencken was a religious skeptic and was highly against the apparent religious protection that surrounded the Scopes trial. I understand where many of his angry claims came from but regard them as fictional and offensive to religious people everywhere. While there are many unintelligent pious people, simply declaring a belief in religion does not immediately label that person as having a lack of intelligence. I agree that there should be no penalty for questioning someone’s beliefs, but disagree with any premeditated assumptions of that person for having that belief. (325)

A Testimony of Beliefs - Part One

                In the aftermath of the Scopes trial, H.L. Mencken wrote an article for The Baltimore Evening Sun that addressed the subject of religion and how it was refuted in the trial. In his article, Mencken praised Mr. Darrow’s attack on religion and emphasized the utter absurdity in religious institutions and the strong stigma surrounding any attacks against them. While I found some to have certain validity, most of the statements written by Mencken were overly bias, insulting to many, and lacking the evidence to support his claims.

                In his article, Mencken showed a strong belief for the freedom to challenge religion and for the elimination of the implied sacredness of religious beliefs. He stated that “The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous.” I agree with Mencken’s belief that religion should not be exempt from criticism by law, but I disagree that anyone should disregard respect when questioning someone of their beliefs. Everyone should retain a common courtesy when criticizing someone else’s beliefs. To eliminate that courtesy would be comparable to telling a three-year old that there is no Santa Claus. It would be extremely disrespectful to blatantly discredit a theory that has enough evidence for someone to retain such a strong belief in it.

                “What should be a civilized man’s attitude toward such superstitions? It seems to me that the only attitude possible to him is one of contempt. If he admits that they have any intellectual dignity whatever, he admits that he himself has none.” In this statement, Mencken seems to convey that any person that believes in religion is stupid and barbaric. He fails to realize that many intelligent people are in fact religious.(303)

Missing Asteroid

I watched a video on the asteroid that is about to barely miss earth. However, the “close-ness” according to NASA and other space organizations is a couple hundred thousand miles or so. Although, this is apparently very close as asteroids go. The video I watched featured Bill Nye answering questions about the asteroid and asteroids in general. I was kind of saddened by the fact that the video did not feature the Bill Nye theme song that I have come to know so well through his amazing educational videos.

Anyway, according to Bill Nye, one asteroid could obliterate an entire city. I assume that it looks like the after effects of a nuclear missile or something like that, I also kind of wonder if it would contain any radiation or some odd space oddity. If it didn’t contain any radiation, I think that I would prefer to get killed by an asteroid compared to an actual nuclear missile, that way if I was hit by it I would just die instantly and not have to live through painful radiation and all of the ugly and horrible side effects of nuclear bombs.

Bill Nye also stated that the asteroid was discovered by a group of young scientists or some space organization or group that isn’t really well known and it sounded like it was discovered as a project or something. Apparently, ninety nine percent of all of the asteroids out there are unknown. These are the ones that we should be afraid of. Don’t worry though, if we discover the asteroids soon enough, all of the space organizations have technology that would somehow make it possible to deter the asteroid enough to force it far enough away to miss the earth and then leave us all safe. I am very curious as to what technology actually causes this though. If it is a rocket they shoot out, I think it would have to be an extremely large rocket. (328)

The Retirement of Pope Benedict XVI

                On February 11, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI made history by announcing his resignation of his position. He made his announcement during what was supposed to be a routine meeting with the discussion on canonizing three potential saints. He announced that “before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise” of leading the Catholics. His resignation is to take effect on February 28^th.

                He also stated that “In today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.” While the pope is eighty five years of age, his resignation was apparently a huge surprise to everyone in the Vatican and everyone in the rest of the world.

                The pope’s plan to retire is to retire in his summer house in Castel Gandolfo and to return later to a monastery in Vatican City. Pope Benedict has done many great things in his time as the pope which can all be taken as exhausting but it is believed that the continuing clerical abuse scandal has played the biggest part in his decision to resign from the Pope status. Popes usually don’t retire, they just die and a new one is elected into power. It is extremely uncommon; I think that I heard that it hasn’t happened for 300 years. It makes me curious if he really is retiring only due to his old age or whether there is some ulterior motive. I will be paying attention to the news in the future to see who will become the next pope and how everything plays out. (329)

Worrisome War

                I decided to start off my TED talks blogs with a video titled “Janine diGiovanni: What I saw in the war.” This TED talk is given by a war reporter that has seen and documented too many wars to count. The main war of her presentation is the siege of Sarajevo. She began her talk with a friend’s account of the beginning of the war; she was walking to work one day in a mini skirt and high heels and all of a sudden, she saw this tank that was coming her way and clearing everything and everyone in its path. She ran the opposite way and ended up crouching behind a trash can in order to attempt to hide from the tank and soldiers. That woman ended up thrusting her child on the last train from Sarajevo in order to save it from the war. She didn't see her child for many years later.

                She found people don’t leave because they don’t want to believe that the war is coming and so everyone is caught in the conflict of war. She addressed the reason that she covers all of these wars; she said that she continues to do it in order to see all of the ordinary heroes. In her line of work, she tries to “shine a light on the dark places of the world.” She knows that what she does will not change the wars or prevent them, she only hopes to shine light on the stories and the situations and make sure people know and can maybe do something themselves.

                I thought this was a very nice TED talk but it wasn't really as inspirational as others I have seen on the website. I guess it is partly due to the fact that in World Humanities we just viewed many, many war stories and they didn't come as much of a shock to me. However, I commend this reporter for doing the things that she is; going to those places and attempting to inform everyone else on the events. You never know what can really change the world until you take it one step at a time. (363)

TED; Part Two

                One of the things that I found interesting about the company, or organization, or whatever it is, was their TED Open Translation Project. The project’s goal is to do basically what can be inferred by the title; to translate the videos. The organization wanted to share the videos and ideas and mantras with people other than those that spoke English. People are able to volunteer to try and translate the videos for viewers of other languages and offer subtitles, time-coded transcripts and the ability for any talking video to be translated. According the the website, there have been translations into 97 different languages, there are 8676 different translators, and have been 33918 different translations. This doesn’t even include the translations that are in progress at the current moment.

                Lastly, I would like to introduce the TED Prize. Not actually introduce the prize, rather, I would like to introduce what the TED Prize is; it is a prize that is awarded each year to someone that proves themselves exceptional. The concept of the project is designed to try and make the world a better place. Cliché I know, but hear me out. One million dollars is awarded to a person that can submit an “inspiring, high impact project” that they themselves have dreamed of or heard somewhere and wished it could actually happen. The winner last year submitted the wish that, basically, everyone could come together to share their expertise, designs, and ideas in order to create a better city; City 2.0. The Prize allowed for the development of a website that does exactly that; provides a place for everyone to share their ideas.

                TED is a really great organization that not only provides fantastic videos to watch, but also aims to make a difference in the world. I hope to write future blogs about some of the videos on TED to prove to everyone else how great they are.(320) 

TED; Part One

                I decided to take up my teacher’s offer for us to write blogs about TED talks. Before I start my blog conquest however, I decided to inform everyone of what TED is. According to the website, “TED is a nonprofit devoted to ideas Worth Spreading.” The acronym TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since the organization was started, its scope and view of the program has gotten a lot broader. The organization holds two annual conferences and has created the TED Open Translation Project and the TED prize, along of course with the TED Talks and TED fellows.

                First I will introduce the TED talks I guess; TED talks are videos that are put up on line with the intention of spreading the ideas that are worth spreading. Now the company has transformed the videos to “give everyone on-demand access to the world’s most inspiring voices.” The videos are inspirational and fun and can be about a variety of topics such as technology, entertainment, design, business, science, and global issues.

                TED hosts a variety of events, the two main ones being the TED Conference and TEDGlobal. The TED Conference is held every year in Palm Springs and lasts for four days. During those four days, there are fifty different speakers with eighteen minutes to broadcast their ideas to everyone else. The topics of their presentations can be about anything they want really business, arts, or even global issues. Even though the topics seem to have no connection to each other what so ever, they are held together by the realization that we are in “an intricately interconnected world.” The second main event that TED hosts is TEDGlobal. This is a conference that is held in the summer and has a more international theme. It is four days also but is held all around the world. This year it is being held in Edinburgh, Scotland on June 10^th. Speakers will discuss global change, political and environmental problems and social and cultural changes. While these might sound absolutely fantastic to go to, I think the minimum ticket price is two thousand five hundred dollars. That fact alone will probably keep me from ever attending a conference but don’t be discouraged because you are able to view all of the videos online! I definitely recommend it. (384)