Confessions of a Facebook Social Climber

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123569857063289235.html

You too can become important. To start, all you need is one celebrity friend.

Wow, I thought this was a really interesting article. It talks about a journalist who has worked his way up the "Facebook Social Ladder" only to be knocked down a couple notches when he realized Charlie Sheen wasn't really Charlie Sheen.

I am impressed with technology more and more every day. It is so crazy to be in touch with so many people at the same time, and now we can all be friends with movie stars?! Well they will probably reject our friendships, but to be able to say you were friend rejected by "so and so" is still pretty cool to think about. Technology has really pushed the limits in the way in which people can be reached and communicated to. With sites like MySpace and Facebook, super fans can be part of anyone's online entourage. MySpace is really big for music, most bands and artists have a site where you can get up to date information while sampling their music. But not only that, you can friend request them and most of them accept. Who needs their own personal website when MySpace is probably visited more often?

Back to Facebook.

I knew it was an expanding area; recently my mom, aunt, and uncle have all become friends of mine on Facebook. I think my aunt is more addicted than I am! Not only this, I had an instant messaging conversation with my high school physics teacher a couple weeks ago....how bizarre! Seriously, when I graduated never again did I really think that a few years from that moment I would Facebook friends with my professor and chatting with him? It's too weird. And now we can friend famous people and possibly become friends with them?

I remember when I was younger if I wanted any type of contact with my favorite actor or music group I would write a letter to their fan club. Sporadically get mail with paraphernalia or upcoming events or a mass printed autographed photo. Who needs that today when your favorite movie start is a search and a click away?

Silencing the Lambs: Scientists Target Sheep Belching to Cut Methane

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123561039911777481.html

Reducing Gas in Livestock Could Help World Breathe Sigh of Relief Over Global Warming

Ok, this is a very bizarre, yet interesting article. It was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this past Thursday and when I read the article title I was a little thrown off. Basically the article is an environmentally focused one and the topic is reducing the speed of global warming. There has been all this research about livestock emitting methane gases when belching. According to the United Nations, methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and is beginning to believe that livestock industries are a major contributor to climate change. They said that these industries are responsible for more greenhouse-gas emissions than cars are! I think that definitely puts it into some perspective, but who would have every thought about something like this?

They are doing a lot of research into this. Studying livestock stomachs as well as placing them into special chambers where they eat grass and remain there until they burp to analyze the atmosphere. It is a little farfetched I think. I mean don't get me wrong, I care about the environment, but this just seems extreme. Maybe it's not; if it is that big of a contributor then it really does need some research. But how do you even solve a problem like this?? I don't know, this was just an interesting article I thought. I just wasn't expecting to read that on the front page of the WSJ.