Hey everybody!

So I posted a random quote from National Treasure 2 on my facebook page the other day, and my friend brought up a very good point.

The quote was from Ben Gates, talking to the President in the tunnels under the cellar.

Everything I am is because of my ancestors

My friend argued that:

We all make our own way, choose our own path to follow.

On some accounts, he is right, however I returned that:

While we still have our agency and our ability to choose, every person leaves a legacy (whether good or bad) and that legacy will influence your posterity. It could influence them to be like “hey look, that person was good example, I want to be like that when I grow up.” or it could influence them to be like “Woah! I am NEVER following that example.” but it will always influence them. Speaking for myself: I am who I am, and where I am, because of them and their examples and choices. Both physically and spiritually. Physically- I AM because they chose to marry who they did and go where they went. Spiritually- IAM because I derive strength from their examples. I have the ability to choose my path, and I have chosen to follow them. Thus, Everything I am is because of my ancestors.

But now my curiosity is piqued. What is your veiw on this issue? Do you agree with my friend? Do you agree with me? or do you have a whole different oppinion entirely?

Leave a comment with your thoughts!

*Love, Sarah*

Now, you may have heard that North Korea is nice this time of year. No pollution staining the skies, and plenty of missiles going off to keep things exciting.

Now I have nothing against Kim Jong-il and his merry band of artillery, besides the fact he seems to like firing off lots of big guns for no apparent reason.

Isn't he beautiful? Who would want to eat this little guy? Image by Richard Ling via Flickr.

I was reading this lovely article earlier from the New York Times this afternoon. Turns out North Korea fired about 110 rounds of artillery into a disputed patch of ocean. This move raised tensions between North and South Korea.

It doesn’t help that South Korea has been practicing aggressive naval tactics after the North commandeered one of their squid fishing boats. Seriously, North Korea, leave these poor squid fishers alone! You have nothing to gain from commandeering their boats! Besides squid. And I doubt you’re that desperate.

The solution to all this bickering?

Ban squid fishing and missile firing. There. Happy?

-Rika

It’s Independence Day. It’s the Day that 55 men signed a Declaration in Independence Hall that would, in time, change the World. 

Some words break; some words mend. Some words hurt; some words heal. Some words help while some words hinder. Some confuse while other clear. Any way you slice it, though, words have power. These are no exception.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable  rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed— That when any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

As Ben Gates said in National Treasure,

It means that those who have the ABILITY to take action have the RESPONSIBILITY to take action.

Image by spi516 via flickr

I love the chorus of Martina McBride’s INDEPENDENCE DAY. It says:

Let freedom ring
Let the white dove sing
Let the whole world know that today
is a day of reckoning
Let the weak be strong
Let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away….
….It’s Independence Day

“Let the Weak be Strong. Let the Right be Wrong.” Isn’t that what happened on July 4, 1776? The Weak (colonists) were made Strong and the Right (King George) was made Wrong.

Just a little something to think about.

*Love, Sarah*

Ladies and gentlemen, there are several things that are known to cause apocalyptic situations:

1. Evil dictators
2. Nuclear warfare
3. When good TV gets canned

When Glee, the show with barbed wire wit and snappy music numbers, and Chuck, the action-packed spy thriller/comedy with an endearing romantic angle, both encountered cruel and unusual hiatuses, the world went into shock. This shock kept building and building until the beginnings of the apocalypse showed themselves as the world began to fray.

Last week, I sat in The Nearby Future’s conference room, pitching this theory to our new contributor Sarah, and our notoriously lazy writer, Calister F. Wells.

I lowered the lights, walking dramatically in through the back of the room as the powerpoint began.

“Earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai province. 100,000 will have to be relocated. 9,900 injured, dead and missing. In New York hospitals, there has been over 50 nurses strikes. The mortality rate in those hospitals during each strike is bumped up by about 20%, or 140 deaths. Icelandic Volcanoes delay flights. All of these disasters have occurred in the past month. Do you know why?” I ask.

“Coincidence?” said Sarah.

“All of this is a precursor to a full-out world war?” Calister asks, almost hopefully.

I roll my eyes and continue. “No. Because, my friends, TV is crap. There are some shows out there that are so horrible they’re popular. Take Burn Notice, for example. It was on Saturday Night Live specifically because of it’s lack of plot and the fact no one knows what it’s about.”

“True. It’s so cheesy it’s entertaining,” Sarah says cheerfully.

I continue, sitting on one of the tables in the conference room. “But Chuck and Glee are two survivors of the dark age of television. They’re the shining light of humanity. And they’ve both been put on hiatus. The world cried themselves to sleep after Glee’s four month hiatus was announced. Terrorist acts were coordinated against television networks after not one, but two hiatuses sent Chuck fans into a frenzy. Not to mention how the network continued to toy with the emotions of Chuck fans as the will they/won’t they renewal talk going on. We seriously considered breaking up with NBC after they kept flirting with the other man, Parenthood.”

“What does this have to do with worldwide disaster?” Calister asks, doubtfully as he takes a sip of coffee from his Nerd Herd mug.

“Because,” I say, slapping the desk for emphasis, “the world is in ruins! Without Chuck, without Glee, the timer is wound! The countdown begins. Earthquakes, volcanoes, missed flights, absentee nurses. Disasters begin adding up. Think! If Chuck and Glee didn’t return this week, the damage could have been catastrophic. It’s the snowball effect. Without good TV, we’re as good as dead.”

nbc.com

Chuck: Sarah, I need to tell you something.

Sarah: What is it, Chuck?

Chuck: We’re on hiatus.

Sarah: (In Shock) No… That can’t be…

Chuck: It does. And you know what a hiatus means…

Sarah: It means the possible end of everything we care about. Like each other.

Chuck: And the world.

Sarah: Sure, that too.

Chuck: Do you know what this means for us?

Sarah: What?

Chuck: War against NBC. Are you in?

Sarah: Let’s do this.

And as Calister argued that it was just coincidence and Sarah just smiled and shook her head, I realized that I was on to something here.

NBC, if you’re reading this, you better greenlight Chuck’s season 4. Nobody likes Heroes anyways. You’ve got bigger things to worry about. Like the world. And saving it. Y’know, what Chuck does in his sleep?

-Rika

bibliography:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236916

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2010/04/15/icelandic-volcano-creates-headaches-for-british-travelers.aspx

http://www.newsweek.com//frameset.aspx/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fworld%2F2010%2Fapr%2F15%2Fchina-earthquake-death-toll-rises

There’s an unstable dictator with access to long range missiles and the media is still going on about Micheal Jackson.

But maybe the reason they seem to be so blatantly ignorant of the North Korean crisis going on is because the government is concealing the situation with extreme success.

When the CIA fails, the media and the nation know. But when everything goes as planned and the CIA succeeds, we don’t hear about it. Poof. Disaster averted, yet no one knows.

Maybe this is one of those situations? There’s a stereotypical supervillain ruling a backwards North Korea, and he’s out for world domination and/or complete demolition of Western society. Sounds like a typical movie plot, right?

So the next time you pick up a newspaper and read about the latest influenza or celebrity death, try and guess what’s at the top of the government’s priority list… then check to see if it’s even in the news.

-Rika

The Media loves a good ghost story. They love nothing more than to lure people into their inky clutches and scare them silly with apocalyptic promises and new and improved weight loss tactics.

This week, Yahoo!’s helping of Doom included a solar eclipse that threatened to throw the world into turmoil because science and superstition isn’t getting along.

Over in India, pregnant woman will be hiding inside as the solar eclipse happens, fearful of their baby developing a birth defect if they go outside.

The politicians and astrologers and everyone with their head on straight predicts bad things are going to happen- because the overly-superstitious people believe so strongly in ever impending doom. They predict domestic violence and possible assassinations of political figures could be a problem in places such as China and other Southeast Asian nations.

In a nutshell? Take this direct quote of a quote from the article:

“The probability for unrest or war to take place in years when a solar eclipse happens is 95 percent,” announced an article that attracted a lot of hits on the popular Chinese web portal Baidu.com.

That proves it. All this chaos would be lessened if people calmed down. I know it isn’t easy to just tell people that, as their fear of eclipses are grounded in their religions. But still; it does seem a little silly.

Mmm. I think I’ll have some ketchup with my serving of Doom. Yum.

-Rika

(Article Citation)

After a flurry of google searches and a tip from Nero, this issue has been brought to my attention. And clearly, it needs to be brought to the nation’s attention. I have found a grand total of TWO articles detailing some news that I find very disturbing:

North Korea may be firing a missile at Hawaii sometime around July 4th.

Yet despite this notable piece of news, stations and websites like Yahoo! News seem to be far more interested in the King of Pop’s death. Oh- they’re doing a second autopsy on Micheal Jackson? No way!

I get it. People want to know about Micheal Jackson, and the news services want to make sure people are visiting them. But sites like CNN and Nytimes.com have a duty to educate people about what’s going on. Especially when it comes to the missiles headed to Hawaii.

If I was in Hawaii, I’d get out of there. Fast.

Do you think that this issue has gone under-reported?

-Rika

It is June…and the theme of the month is Apocalypse (a.k.a. “the end of the world)! I was just randomly Googling “Apocalypse” and I happened to come around to this website www.apocalypse2012.com. Personally, I do not believe the world is going to end in 3 short years, however, I was intrigued by this website and thought I would write about it. This website is based off of his book Apocalypse 2012.

Who believes in Apocalypse 2012:

Lawrence E. Joseph, who worked in advanced physics research in Albuquerque, New Mexico and worked on the Vulcan Plasma Disintegrator (a furnace at high temperature meant to completely get rid of “biological and chemical wastes with leaving no toxic residue”). This is all part of his biography on his website. Along with that includes his education, prizes he has won, and even where he currently lives. Feel free to go and take a look. He examines everything through history, to come up with the idea that the world will indeed end in the year 2012. Studies include the Revelations, I Ching, and even the recent Bible Code, as well as the Mayan Long Calendar. He even goes to Guatemala in the harsh jungles to physically see the Mayans who contributed to the prediction of the world ending. His travels also stretches to Siberia, in which geophysicists believe that our solar system is “moving into a highly charged interstellar energy cloud”. The last stop he made was to South Africa, where he interviewed physicists who are trying to figure out why the “earth’s magnetic field is vanishing”.

The 10 things he believes is guilty of this Apocalypse:

1. Ancient Mayan prophecies say that on December 21, 2012, it will be a new age, where when new things are born comes with blood, agony, hope, and promise.
2. Through 1940-2003, the Sun has been of an uproar than ever before since the last major global warming encounter in the last Ice Age. Solar physicists say that the solar activity will reach its highest point than ever before in 2012.
3. Storms on the Sun (storms on the Earth) which include Hurricane Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in 2005 which contributed to the stormiest weeks recorded history of the Sun.
4. Earth’s magnetic field, which helps solar radiation, has been fading with cracks in the ozone hole.  Soon, a pole shift, which is when the protection almost reaches zero and the North and South magnetic poles reverse.
5. Russian geophysicists says that our Solar System has turned into an interstellar energy cloud which is giving energy and changing the balance of the Sun and the planets. They predict that something bad will happen when our Earth reaches this cloud in the years 2010-2020.
6. Physicists from Berkeley discovered that 70% of species and dinosaurs extinguished an impact which will create another horrible catastrophe coming our way.
7. The Yellowstone supervolcano, which erupts every 600,000-700,000 years is coming soon. In Indonesia, another volcano eruption 74,000 years ago led to more than 90% of deaths in that population.
8. Philosophies like the I Ching etc. also believe that the world will end in 2012.
9. One of the interpretations of the Bible even predicted that the world will end in 2012.
10. Have a nice day (It literally said that on the website)

Well, I do hope all of you have a nice day. Again, I still do not believe our world is going to end in 3 years (at least I hope not). That is why we need to do whatever we can to protect our Earth. If this Apocalypse prediction is true, we want to do anything we can to stop it from coming.

~Hope

Here’s a radical idea for you: what if there was no time?

Considering that timing is everything and time is money, where does that leave us? Broke and without anything?

Turns out, this idea might not be as radical as you think. I was reading the Discover magazine today, and I found an interesting passage:

“There may be an end of time. Three Spanish scientist posit that the observed acceleration of the expanding cosmos is an illusion caused by the slowing of time. According to their math, time may eventually stop, at which point everything will come to a standstill.”

-March 2009 Discover Magazine

And that’s it. Just a mention in the back of the magazine in a list entitled 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Time.

Nothing but a cliffhanger to keep us up at night, huh?

Think about it. Everything just stopping and coming to a standstill like a wind up watch! That would be quite a sight.

What does the article mean about ‘the end of time’? Who are these scientists? Why was this just an afterthought in the magazine?

I’ll do some research and get back to you all!

-Rika

     Jan 18-24 is national hunt for happiness week. I think that people need more than week to hunt for happiness isn’t that supposed to be a life long venture? Oh I guess I read that wrong. It’s supposed to be a week where you realize and celebrate all thing that have made you happy in life and celebrate them while continuing to have (or find) happiness. To celebrate happiness do what made you happy, buy cake, make some else happy by serving them, etc. This sounds like great week to me!

[Picture citation]

Here are some of the national days/weeks for January:

(I am not positive that I got all them *I just got them off http://www.epromos.com/calendar/promotional-calendar.html )  

Coming soon History, Heart, Marfan Syndrome, Time, Library Lovers (YAY), Plant Seeds, Weddings, Parent and Youth leadership Month !!!! (AKA February)

~Jala  

P.S. yes I did break down and write article *gasp* lol

This year The Nearby Future staff has written a collective 48,747 words! Here are your favorite articles from staff members with the most page views (not counting Jala, because she writes pages, not posts).

• Rika’s best articles: “Corn“, “Stress: Side Effects Include…”, and “The World is Not Coming to an End“
• Calister F. Well’s best articles: “When In Rome, Think Like the Greeks”, and “Humming the Song of the World’s Destruction“
• PLOTG’s best articles: “Personal Rights Conflict With Hollywood’s Big Bucks”, “Teens and Their Sleep“, and “The Pledge“,
• Hope’s best articles: “HPV Vaccine“, “Izze: A Healthy Alternative“, and “Clocky: Crushing the Dreams of Snooze Button People Everywhere“.

And even though she doesn’t write for us anymore, big thanks to contributor ‘Ashley Lampost’ for her wonderful article about cars!
Looking forward to a great new year,

-Rika

Note: Each article that has won this prestigious award will bear the following picture upon it’s page:

Really, we don’t brag a lot here.

But the article we wrote back in February happened to have a correct prediction in comparing the oncoming recession to the Great Depression.

Even President Bush has declared that our “entire economy is in danger” during his pep talk today.

I’m beginning to see a trend here.

As you can see by this graph, my predicting skills do not apply to staff contests.

In all seriousness, we (The Nearby Future staff) suggest that you start planning, putting away some of your income for the inevitable economic disaster, and buy an electric car.

People, things are going to get expensive. Fast. Everything depends on oil- food and other products all need to be transported, right? And until we get going on this renewable energy thing, prices are going to keep going up.

Don’t believe us? May I remind you of our two accurate predictions so far? And that stylish graph?

Point made.

-Rika

The opening ceremony of the Olympics was incredible- the visual effects and the atmosphere created was truly memorable and has definitely earned a place in history.

But all technological wonders of this quickly advancing countries, I noticed many other things, too. Here are some of my observations:

• It was spectacular, but I can’t help but being struck by all that waste! The money filtered into building the huge LCD screens, the stadium and all of the costumes could have been used for so much better causes!
• The announcers sounded very scripted, and one has to wonder if a government had a say in what they said.
• It’s ironic how they talk about being ‘one’ with nature as the smoke from the fireworks spiral up into the night sky to continue to pollute our world.

But overall, it’s good to see China trying to (or seeming to try, at least) to forget ethnic differences and focus on the Olympic Games. And excessive, non-environmentally friendly firework use.

~Rika

News stations, newspapers, talk shows, daily conversation- in almost every aspect of our lives, doubt seems to be sinking in even more so that global warming, raising oil prices, and many other conflicts will not be solved as cleanly as we all had hoped.

But no, it’s not time to break out singing “It’s the End of the Word as We Know It” because, contrary to spreading belief, it’s not the end of the world, and it won’t be anytime soon.

No, I’m not some crazy optimist who ignores the facts. For any of those who have actually been reading my morbid articles on environmental issues and human rights, you can see that I’m not one to stubbornly oppose facts or be so optimistic that it’s blinding, unlike some people I can think of. (Cough cough politicians)

But you think that everything that we’ve been through, it just can’t end in 2012. Why? The answer should be obvious. How far has the human race really come? (The invention of the ipod aside) How much as really changed? Is there still war? Yes. Is there an increase in peace? Hardly. Does our world even slightly resemble the comforting It’s a Small World ride in Disney land with catchy, brainwashing music and cute dolls playing the ukulele, everyone in the world sharing postcards and holding hands? Not even close.

You’re probably wondering what my harsh negativity has to do with anything at all, but it has a big part. How could the world end when animals are treated worse than they have ever been, some countries still don’t even have the basic, most necessary human rights, a world that is so caught up in materialistic things, come to an end now, without resolutions?

I believe in finished endings. I’m a writer; a sensible, conclusive ending is a condolence to whatever tragedy happened. That’s why I like happy endings. They’re more of a better send off, an ending that makes sense, that prepares for whatever happens in the next book. If the world does really have a creator, (which I do believe it does) than I don’t think they would just send it into oblivion without some sort of parting gift, or without everyone realizing that- hey!- we’ve messed up again and again, so many mistakes being repeated like a broken record player.

This isn’t supposed to defer you in any way to stop trying to change the world. Who knows? Maybe if us humans actually learn that killing and violence is a bad thing, our world will not end for thousands and thousands of years to come!

But until we pull out those white earbuds out of our ears and stop trying to block out that pathetic sound of people in need, children hungry, sick and dying, and those poor tortured animals keening in the night, then we will go nowhere.

Trust me on this. It doesn’t take a mind reader that we’re ready for some change, although it’s no change that a president can bring. It’s one that we instill on ourselves. So start humming a happier tune, and start making a difference. No ukuleles, please, those things give me headaches.

-Rika

This article has been chosen as one of the best articles of 2008.

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