Just doing some calculations this Saturday morning

An open letter to the artist who created the Mitt Romney vs Obama 2012, Mitt Romney Video which I sent to Info@ydraw.com.

Dear artist,

I applaud your grassroots efforts to support Mitt Romney. On the whole I am left very impressed.

As an active member of the LDS church, I was interested in taking issue with a minor detail that your vid discussed.

I think it’s fine to mention that Mitt Romney is a member of the LDS church and that he follows its morals is a great example of an LDS person. I also think it’s great that you mention that Mormons and Mitt Romney are Christians and that the Founding Fathers wrote the constitution based on Christian morals.

All which I believe to be true.

I also this it's great to mention prophecies from Joseph Smith about the end of times and the disintegration of the constitution and the republic which is stands on.

As a member of the LDS faith, I wish you had't suggested that Mitt Romney is one of those elder's foretold "to support the constitution as it hangs by a thread".

I say this for two simple reasons:

I don’t think it’s clear Mitt Romney will support the constitution better than the current president.

I highly doubt he will support the Constitution better, but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and posit that his support level is unclear to be better than that of the current president. Most of the vids that result when you search ‘Mitt Romney flip-flop’ are decent examples of Mitt Romney’s flippancy and ability to change opinions regarding issues. Some of these include, Pro-Life to Pro-Choice, Pro-Gun control to Pro-Gun rights, among others. So when I say he could do equally worse than the current president in supporting the constitution, I could be pleasantly surprised to find out he is much better.

The worst ways that the president is attacking our liberties, Mitt Romney has pledged to continue. At the beginning of the year, the president signed into law the NDAA, which allows for the indefinite detention of US citizens. When Romney was asked if he supported it, he said he did. When asked if he supported an audit of the private Federal Reserve, he said he doesn’t support an audit and would reappoint Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve Chairman. To Romney’s credit and style, he did change his opinion on the Chairman.

And again, I couch these feelings with the notion that I find it impossible to have much opinion politically about the former governor. As it was impossible to portend what kind of legislation Obama had in mind, I find it impossible to portend anything that the former governor will do if he were elected. Of course campaign promises have been made by both the former governor and senator, but if presidential race history repeats itself, we should only expect these promises to be nothing more than campaign promises.

Your optimism is that Romney will uphold the constitution is fine to have to be sure. I do however take issue with your

I did take another issue with your video, which I am still trying to formulate how to say in a cogent and civil manner. But I am too tired to care anymore and need to go out on a date.

I will post this open letter on my website Andrewpedia.blogspot.com and you are welcome to respond and I will post your response there.

Debate: Trade and the Environment

Eric “Andrew” Coleman

Debate: Trade and the Environment

Introduction

The environment is a factor in trade and economic models. To ignore the pollution for too long leave the environment unusable. International trade seems to function better in markets that are established and free of conflict. Markets that would protect or that would have the potential of protecting depleted, overharvested resources seem to only function in trading zones that are free of conflict. Thus trade is the best and only war to ensure that a market is able to protect natural resources.

Supporting Statements

Corn and sugar

Many environmentalists complain that trade increases environmental degradation unequivocally. A case against this is the United States ethanol production. The United States maintains an import quota on sugar which artificially inflates the price to levels that are almost double in other countries. In equatorial countries like Brazil where sugarcane is used to produce ethanol instead of corn, much more efficient levels of output are attained because sugarcane is a crop that requires much less resources for ethanol production. In the article, “The Power of Big Corn”, describes well why corn ethanol is much less efficient than sugarcane or other alternatives.

“The ratio of energy gained versus the energy needed to plant, fertilize, and harvest the crop is poor, and corn crops are notoriously hard on soil. With technological advances, scientists hope to be able to replace corn with agricultural waste or a non-food plant like switch grass.

In the meantime, sugar cane could be used to produce ethanol with much less investment in energy.” 1.

The inefficient use of resources within the United States reduces environmental protections.

War

Although not well considered by most environmental economists, war is a producer of pollution that should be given more thought. The human family is the only species that has the ability to decrease its own population in drastic ways. In fact the in some instances an entire population has been reduced to zero. The Book of Mormon records the history of the Jaredite people who reduced their population of 2 million down to 2 people in a short period of time. This land that was found by later inhabitants noted that such was the destruction of the land that nothing was able to grow upon it.

Including Homo Sapians as a species of the tierra environ infers that war is a pollution that reduces the size of the human family. Economist Thomas Friedman describes how trade and more specifically the establishment of international corporations reduces warfare.

“An example exists in countries that have a McDonald's franchise. Of the many countries with franchises, the only armed conflicts to have taken place between these countries have been the United States invasion of Panama, the NATO Bombing Campaign during the Kosovo War, the 2006 Lebanon War, the Kargil War the 2008 South Ossetia war, and the Salvadoran Civil War. This is because intensifying of global economic integration, symbolized by a McDonald's network, increases the costs of war for both victor and defeated to a greater degree than ever before.” 1

Many historians agree that the jump in average world wide tariffs were significant causes of fierce german nationalism in the 1930’s was the increase in protectionist tariffs placed during this time period. The beginning of this trend was passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930, which was passed by Senator Reed Smoot from Utah and Rep. Willis Hawley from Oregon. The act raised tariffs as high as 60% on some imports. The purpose of the tariff was to protect American farmers and industries during the great depression. The legislation backfired and inspired every other trading country to enact tariffs of their own. Average tariffs jumped from 15% in 1914 to 25% in 1933. One economic historian described the situation as such.

“A groundswell of resentment spread around the world and quickly led to retaliation. Italy objected to duties on hars and bonnets of straw, wool-felt heat, and olive oil; Spain reacted sharply to increases on cork and onions; Canada took umbrage at increases on maple sugar and syrup, potatoes, cream, butter, buttermilk, and skimmed milk. Switzerland was moved to boycott American typewriters, fountain pens, motor cars, and films because of increased duties on watches, clocks, embroidery, cheese and shoes… Retaliation was begun long before the [Smoot-Hawley] bill was enacted into law in June 1930.”3

Aside from the human costs the environmental costs are also significant. During the interwar activities the military, especially the United States military, is significant consumer of petroleum. According to Different Takes, an environmental group, in New Hampshire.

“In the US – the world’s most oil-thirsty country – the largest single consumer of oil is the Pentagon. Together, the world’s militaries consume as much petroleum as Japan – the world’s second largest economy – and produce an estimated 6-10% of global air pollution.”4

A devil’s advocate antagonist could argue that the trade has damaged the environment in far worse ways that war has. Though that maybe true, the model of market of goods and services can be be altered to include negative externalities like pollution. In this regard, producers of goods must compensate those they negatively affect. In wartime however, markets are not able to constrain suppliers or consumer in such a fashion that will allow over harvested resources to rebound. The economics of warfare do not have the ability to factor in negative externalities.

To illustrate this point, think of the deforestation that occurs in Brazil every year, versus the deforestation that occurred in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. The firms that operate in Brazil have complete control over how many acres are consumed. This rate can contract or expand depending on the demand of the world markets and the limited supply of rainforest. Contraction can happen at the bidding of the land owners, when these acres are consumed at a above normal rate.

The Vietnamese however are not able to control the rate of deforestation during the Vietnam War because there does not exist a market where land owners can exercise their land rights over their land against the United States. During the Vietnam War, “19 million gallons of Agent Orange, the US dropped some 25 million bombs on South Vietnam, wiping out half of the mangrove forests and eliminating almost 5 million acres of forest.”4

Significant evidence of conservation actually occurs in Africa but only in countries free of conflict and able to enforce market regulations. An abstract from an economic journal.

“There is a lack of consensus among some conservation NGOs and African governments concerning the acceptability and effectiveness of trophy hunting as a conservation tool. This lack of consensus is due partly to a lack of reliable information on the economic significance and ecological impact of the industry. We provide a review of the scale of the trophy hunting industry, and assess both positive and negative issues relating to hunting and conservation in Africa. Trophy hunting occurs in 23 countries in Africa, with the largest industries occurring in southern Africa and Tanzania, where the industry is expanding. The trophy hunting industry has remained static or is shrinking in Central and West Africa. A minimum of 1,394,000 km2 is used for trophy hunting in sub-Saharan Africa, which exceeds the area encompassed by national parks. Trophy hunting is thus of major importance to conservation in Africa by creating economic incentives for conservation over vast areas, including areas which may be unsuitable for alternative wildlife-based land uses such as photographic ecotourism. However, there are a number of problems associated with the industry which limit conservation benefits. Several of these problems are common to multiple countries, suggesting that if solutions were developed, conservation benefits would accrue over large areas.”5

The countries mentioned in the abstract and following journal article are all countries free of serious conflict where markets can enforce their power. The article lists the countries that such sport hunting cannot take place and all are conflict torn states that are not able to support regulations.

Conclusion

Environmental protection can only occur when markets are securely in place. And markets can only exist when property rights are not violated through conflict. The best protection for the environment in our modern world is through trade.

Bibliography

1. “The Power of Big Corn”

2. Lexus and the Olive tree Thomas Friedman

3. Charles Kindleberger. 1989. “Commercial Policy between the Wars” in P. Mathias and S. Pollard, eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. VIII, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.170.

4. A Publication Of The Population And Development Program At Hampshire College no. 22 ~ Spring 2003

5. Economic and conservation significance of the trophy hunting industry in sub-Saharan Africa Biological Conservation Volume 134, Issue 4, February 2007, Pages 455-469 P.A. Lindseya, P.A. Rouletb and S.S. Romañacha,

Paper

A 4 page, 12 pt font, double-spaced, 1 inch margin paper on one of the 7 topics discussed in our weekly debates will be due on the last day of class.

Students should use any or all of the sources cited by themselves and other students during the relevant debate as well as one additional academic source (a simple search of articles or books on the BYU library cite will reveal many potential sources).

The academic and non-academic sources should be cited by footnotes within the paper.

Furthermore, in order to connect the student’s research and the topics discussed in class, the student must relate the issue to a model or theory discussed in class or in the text.

The paper must include an introduction, body and conclusion. The body of the paper should discuss the various opinions, statistics and proposed solutions and in the conclusion the student must side with an opinion or solution and state the reasons why they support such an opinion or solution.

The table below describes the number of points deducted from the max of 10 due to the absence of the following elements:

Structure (4pgs, intro, body, footnotes, conclusion, etc)	3
Used and cited sources	2
Used an academic source	2
Issue connected with model or theory	2
Spelling, grammar, etc	1

University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing - Portable Temporary Low-Profile Barrier (PTB) for Roadside Safety

University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing - Portable Temporary Low-Profile Barrier (PTB) for Roadside Safety

Composting

I just created my first website. I feel rather proud of myself.

Intuit feels like it is from 2003. I would look into AJAX.

So many people don't realize that the world is going to change in a fundamental way with the advent of Twitter.

I will put it this way. Facebook was to the internet/email as Twitter is to Facebook.

Again reason for celebration. I constructed a website about composting.

Wikileaks

Wikileaks needs to be looked at by everyone. Read about it. Watch this talk about it.

Commercialization idea:

Arbitrage the first rights to stories from Wikileaks to Journalists.

Why:

Many documents that Wikileaks sources can be fairly complicated and only journalists that can specialize in that arena have the ability to make sense of the documents. Breitbart.com has made a huge amount of money by drawing advertisers to its site because it is often the first place stories happen.

I just wanted to share exactly what I look at all day long on the net. This site Dataopedia.com is up there with Google, Wikipedia, and BYU info in terms of utility.

Dataopedia takes absolutly all info that can be gleaned about a sites IP addresss and aggregates it into one place.

In case you aren't interested in what the links do, or if you don't know what a link does, it shows all data possible about BYU.edu's IP address.

Click on the link and you will see that 5% of the users and 2.3% of the pageviews come from Indian IP addresses. That's Asia Minor India, not Native American Indian. If you look farther down the DPRK (North Korea) graps a good one and a half percent of the users and half a percent of the page views. That is clearly more than South Korea, because it is not even on the map.

My point is that India is third in educating students at the university level after the US and China. In 2006 almost 400,000 students were awarded technical degrees. The Indian Educational System is growing faster than anyother in the world.

You may say,"But those Indians aren't acutally applying to BYU, there are just a billion people over there snooping around on the net for an education in the US, they aren't actually going to apply and come to BYU".

Though I personally don't know any Indians at BYU, I am well connected to the Nepalese community. Nepal is the country to the north of India and also has an impressive educational system. The number of Nepalese attending BYU increases by almost 10% every year.

LDS Youth need to be aware that the competativeness at BYU increases every year. I would venture to say it increases at a faster rate than almost any other academic institution. When I graduated high school ('03) the average ACT score for incoming freshman was 24-26, currently the average ACT score for incoming freshman is 27-29.

LDS Youth need to be aware of these things or they will need to opt. for BYU-Idaho/Hawaii, for that "BYU experience."