the STEROIDS (flattener#10)

after talking more in-depth about flattener #10 in class, it gave me a slap in the face by reality to see just how technology is basically our life. like how steroids are used to increase a person's stamina and strength, the "steroids (in terms of technology)" is amplifying all other flatteners and technology from the past. its obvious that as years go by, technology is going to advance rapidly and make all previous technology look shameful. however, its scary to think about just HOW FAR technology CAN go. i knew about the advancement of technology in asia for many years now, but never really considered it because it just seemed normal to me. however, now that its written in text, i'm able to read with my own eyes just what sort of capabilities a little piece of machinery can do (i.e. scanning a product with your phone, credit card and other information on your phone, etc). i'm even amazed to see how even toys today are becoming more digital and virtual. forget about counting real apples to learn math. kids nowadays are able to count apples on virtual and compact console systems and also learn grammar, reading, spelling, science and even different languages. and really, technology these days are really about "me me me" since everything is becoming more personalized and more beneficial to an individual. especially cell phones nowadays responds to a persons own needs. all new cell phones that are coming out in the U.S. are now equipped with live television programming, live video conferencing, cameras and mp3's. people are even able to gain access to just about anything over the internet with the "proper" information. how? because technology has allowed us more access, capability, freedom and faster connections to almost everything.

again, i never realized just how much technology is developing since i've grown up with it. but seeing how advanced things are now, i'm scared (also excited at the same time) to see how far technology can go. we must always have to improve what was already made with steroids to show that technology can get stronger and more powerful with each passing day. but, what can we do now? we need technology in our lives to function daily workloads faster (unless youre at work and you procrastinate with simple yet mindless games or online websites). so i guess all we can do is just sit back and see what comes our way. whoop-dee-do.

relating it to us!

i thought it was interesting to integrate our future exercises into the exercies today. it was definately apporpiate because we are in the mist of what friedman discusses in his book "the world is flat" we are the designers and artists that will be submersed into the worlds economic boom of downfall. we will have a contribution to the industries that will eventualy impact the flatteners of the world. i'm interested to see how i and my fellow studnets use their skills and creativity in the future. we are all strung along this chain that leads to the flattenign and equalization of our world, if not in one way that another.

bringing us up to date

i really enjoy reading the world is flat because it really gives us an insight to america and the rest of the world in terms of the economy and advancements. So much goes on in the world evryday and there are dozens of media sources that all give different versions of what goes on. i feel like i never really get the straight story until it goes into a school textbook, much like history class. it's facinating to follow thomas friedman and his exploration of our flattening world. i think its great that america and other international countries are playing on a more and more leveled playing field. it allows us to learn from them what we don't already know. it opens doors for so many capable people and bringing these teams together can only produce even better outcomes for our economies.

Easy ways you can live a greener life!

we can't change the world all at once. it's easier to just listen to all the things we're doing wrong to the environment we live in but i think what would drive all of us to make changes is if we had personal reasons to inspire us to follow through. Small adjustments made at least some of the time can ultimately make a great difference. It's clear that everyone is going to have to change their lifestyles, but making changes does not have to be hard. Little things like carpooling and turning off lights and electronics when thy're not in use are just minor changes that we can all do. It's not soley up to us and our habits at home though. the government also controls a lot of how our daily lives function like the road changes and enhancements which then decide how far we have to drive to work and so on. so there has to be some kind of joint cause to contribute to saving our world. as much as we think that our sources are unlimited, they're dissapearing slowly but surely.

flattener #9!

it's amazing how far our world has gotten in terms of available information. Everyone has an equal chance of accessing anything and everything over the internet. There in no discrimination so long as you can get to a computer and even if you don't own your own system, there are countless places where you can use them (internet cafe's, libraries, resources at school and work). Everyone feels a sense of empowerment from being able to explore readily available information. Hoewever, we do have to keep in mind that everything we do over the world wide web leaves traces and can be followed by others. It's a price to pay for having outlets to the the world and all the information it may hold.

Panda's don't have anything to do with grammar!

After reading ESL it took me a while to understand how much help it actually was. Even though for myself the humor, to me, was not very humorous, it still helped me greatly with grammar. After talking to Marsha when she asked me about this book, I thought about it differently. Even though I did not entirely I still think the book did a very good job at helping us recognize our grammatical errors. The unique humor that is introduced in the book is one of the most effective ways of helping with grammar and I am happy that I got a chance to be introduced with it.

Thank the lord the world is becoming flat!

Reading TWIF I have come to realize that I love the fact that the world is actually becoming more flat. So many people will benefit from the world flattening. Now that the worlds information is more available to everyone all over, the chance to make this world a better place is available for everyone to focus on and develop. With the availability of information, we can accelerate in developing things that can make life on this planet richer and more comfortable.

1. Technologies will develop quicker
2. Ideas can be brainstormed all over the world
3. We wont be confined to just information of one country
4. Job availability will increase, giving everyone a chance to do something great

The world can benefit from all aspects of everything if the world finally becomes flattened and it is exciting to think of the possibilities and what is to come of the world flattening.

TWIF pg 136-222 Response to the Reading

Flattener #6 Offshoring:
"American companies that produce at home and abroad, for both the American market and China's, generate more than 21 percent of U.S. economic output, produce 56 percent of U.S. exports, and employ three fifths of all manufacturing employees, about nine million workers. So if General Motors builds a facotry offshore in Shanghai, it also ends up creating jobs in America by exporting a lot of goods and services to its own factory in China and benefiting from lower parts costs in China for its factories in America."
I think this is really great. A great way to create jobs both here in America and in China. Im sure this is happening in other parts of the world too. There are too many people here without jobs, and im sure there are many there in China too. We need to work with other countries more in these kinds of ways to better ourselves and better others' situations.
On page 158 the author discusses of how businesses distribute their products throught companies like Wal-Mart. Walmart takes steps to lower costs from its suppliers and also takes the intiative to find out what its customers are buying to see what they should buy more of from their suppliers and how much they should invest in certain products. I think Wal Mart is a great store, lots of good stuff, for fairly cheap, although nothing is cheap enough for me. Some might see Walmart's tactics of dealing with their distributors and finding out what their customers buy sorta sneaky, but i see it as being tactful and pretty smart. Although it doesnt seem to benefit their distributors very much unless the product sells well, i think its still a good strategy on Walmarts part.

TWIF from another culture

For me, being a person from another country, Colombia, the things that concern american people about the flattening of the world are not as bad. For a country like mine, the flattening is helping us develop. Most of the people in my country wouldn´t be able to know much about things that are happening outside the country without internet or stuff like that.
In Colombia it´s been possitive also because of the fact that people arround the world can see how great workers we are, and that can help with the internationl investsments which is always good for our economy.

response to reading 103-136

This section discusses the way the internet helps people from all over the world take part in problem solving and how we are able to gain "knowledge" from other people's contributions. For instance, Wikipedia is a popular example of online sharing and a source for learning. Wikepedia is an online encyclopedia where anyone can edit and post. "The biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. Over two million articles and still growing." Because the content can be changed by anyone, this can often lead to misinformation. Moreover, wikipedia is useful fo getting the basic information down however if one were to look for correct information, going to an actual encyclopedia is recommended. This is a good example of how the whole world acts as a community which give off the illusion that other countries are closer than they really are.