When children are growing up, it seems as if we are drilled in school and by our parents to use correct grammer in everything we do.  We were taught such good grammer so we would be excellent communicators as we entered into the “real world” and work force.  However, it seems as my generation and generations to come have taken a turn for the worse.

As texting was introduced to my generation, it boomed.  Unfortunately, in texts you are only allowed to type 160 characters before the capacity if full.  This seems easy enough, but ultimately, those 160 characters are easily used up quickly.  A solution to this space issue was to shorten and abbreiviate things.  Such as i’ll be right back is now brb or laugh out loud is lol.  The list goes on and on.  Now however, it seems as if this is become a problem.  People will write papers using such language, and will even speak it too.  The communication and grammer aspect of this generation seems to be hindered by this texting lingo. 

The newest trend in my generations and generations below me is to tweet.  Tweet simply means that you place a hash tag (#) in front of a word of phrase essentially with no spaces between the words.  An example of this would be to say, #winning if you have done something good or beat someone at something.  This too is becoming a new fad and taking over the communication world.  People speak, text, and write in hashtags.

I foresee both these forms of communication becoming a problem in the work place.  It is not proper english, but unforunately some people believe it is. 

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I woke up today with a goal in mind.  I have recently signed up for polar bear plunge here at Iowa State to help raise money for the special olympics.  In order to partcipate, you must be part of a club and raise a minimum of $50.00 before taking the plunge.  My club is Phi Beta Chi, the sorority I’m in and that was the easy part.  The $50.00 is a whole different story.

As I started brainstorming ideas of where to ask for donations, I came up with a quick list and began calling.  I left voicemail after voicemail to call me back or explaining my situation.  I quickly received no phone calls back, but several text messages and even a facebook message.  This started to frustrate me knowing that I had specifically asked for a phone call back when they had a chance, which they obviously have a chance if they are on facebook or texting.  I responded to all of them by saying can you please call me and it was as if that was near impossible.  They must be out of cell phone minutes is the best I can hope for.

After all this happened, I realized people seem to have learned that physically talking to someone is more of a hassle and they prefer not to.  It’s very frustrating because I believe phone calls are more to the point, more informative, and more professional than texting. 

Along with this realization, I noticed a similar situation with an advisor.  I am looking into changing my major and I emailed an advisor from the new desired department asking for a meeting with them to discuss the outcome of a communications degree, and got a response stating to look at the catalog online and if I had any further questions to contact the department again.  This is frustrating in many ways, but one of the main reasons is I am a paying student here to get an education and would expect to be helped when asked in somewhat of a timely manner.  And secondly, the major I was looking into was communication studies and that particular person must have missed the point of communication.  I believe that people in todays world need to focus more on physical communication rather than just shooting someone a message here or there. 

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sidedish.dmagazine.com

Scientists all over the globe are frantically looking for alternative sources of biofuel.  Many fear that using our valuable crop land to produce such fuel will ultimately end up in a limited food supply for humans.  Humans are essentially taking too much of two things, food and fuel all coming from a central souce. 

However, a few researches may have come up with a very plausable alternative.  Oddly enough, they have discovered that seaweed can be harvested into biofuel.  Scientists feel this could be a bright and positive future.  Not only would we solve the problem of limited food resources, but we would also be helping clean up the waters that are around the algea.  Algea is a sort of cleaning system for the water, yet if there is too much of algea in one area it can cause danger to the ecosystem itself. 

Scientists are still working tirelessly to make the seaweed/algea work as biofuel.  There are still a few kinks to be worked out such as how will this ultimately effect ecosystems in the long run and will there be enough to fuel the ever-so-demanding human race. 

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

Is Seaweed the Future of Biofuel?

ScienceDaily.com

March 5, 2012

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120305132534.htm

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renewableenergymagazine.com

As I walk around campus in this lovely weather, 70 degree’s to be exact, I see several people out in about.  I don’t know what it is about the transition from cold to warm weather, but it sure does bring out all sorts of different people who are very excited.  

There are two types of human interaction i’ve seen since the weather has been warming up.  Today especially brought out a lot of people.  My eyes attention were quickly pulled to the lustful couples who must have been hibernating all winter long in their dorms.  Yet, the second the weather warms up they are everywhere.  Anywhere I look I see people holding hands, smooching, hugging, twirling each other around, and wrapping their arms around each other.  It’s a bit disturbing at times, but yet still fun to watch and see them interact.  It’s not necessarly the verbal communication thats going on, it’s more the physical communication.  The way they touch each other shows they care.  And the playful shoves show the flirty ”Hey I like you” type of attitude.  It’s an odd type of communication to figure out because non of it is verbal, but it is rather fun, and somewhat sickening, top watch. 

The second type of communication that drew my attention this week was politcal phone calls.  Most people I know despise these, as do I.  Typically what happens is you will receive a phone call from a rather odd number and you want to ignore it knowing the chances it’s a political recording are high, but there is always that hope it’s an actual person calling for you.  Yet, everytime we answer that phone there is a 4 second pause because an automatic recording comes on.  Now, I find this communication rather odd because they are trying to gain support from you, but are not putting in the effort to have a conversation.  Most people want to feel important and significant, so having a one way conversation with a voice recording isn’t the way to go.   

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As scientists began to look deeper into global warming over the past thousands of years, they are beginning to see a rather odd correlation. Back whenever the first horse was roaming around standing about 12-16 inches off the ground is where the first major thermal increase occured. Scienctists looked into the fossils of the first horse and realized that at that time, as small as the horse was already, it shrunk again after the dramatic temperature incresase.

They began to more vigerously look into the horse fossils over time, including bone size and teeth. Teeth is a very prominate way to develop the age of the horse and the approximate size. They began to realize, that during each thermal shirt, there happened to be a direct relationship to the horse size. The horses would shrink during these times. Now one might think how is this possible when horses went from being 12in tall to whopping 22 hands (hand=4in). This is answered during the periods where temperature remained constant. The horses would slowly increase in time during these periods, eventually reaching their size today.

Some might say what does this have to do with humans. Well, if you take the time to look into this, you can see it may be happening to humans also. Someday, human kind may have to adapt and stand 4ft tall. Not ideal, and potentially not realistic. Scienctist are still looking into such information, and what can be done to stop this if it were to occur.

Doug Boyer of Brooklyn College, Aaron Wood of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and the Florida Museum, Scott Wing of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Mary Kraus of the University of Colorado, Francesca McInerney of Northwestern University and John Krigbaum of UF. (1)

Earliest Horses Show Past Global Warming Affected Body Size of Mammals

ScienceDaily.com

February 23, 2012

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120223142634.htm

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With midterms and spring break approaching, it seems as if teachers are all trying to cram in as many assignments, quizzes, and exams as they can. I myself have been swamped with such things, and know several people who would agree. I have been complaining a lot about how much I have to do, but luckily I have a group project which should not be as stressful. Unfortunately, I have discovered that is where I went wrong.

I did not think much about the stress a group project could cause until I started working on it early today and realized there was going to be a lot of budding heads with communication, but thought little of it. As I sat down to write this blog, there are three boys working on a group project across from me and I hear them constantly spouting out ideas, but none matching up and then having just moments of silence where they all secretly role their eyes. I realized this was my group earlier today. We were budding heads, frustrated, and confused.

I now find myself thinking which is truly better when it comes to school work and projects. The communication that goes on within a group setting is stressful nonetheless, but at the same time you get a lot more input and idea’s that can help cover all angles of the assignment. I do find that in group settings, where I may be lacking, they may be strong and are able to balance it out. Whereas, if you are working solo, you might be very strong in one area, but have no one to pick up the slack of your weaknesses.

Its an odd way of thinking about communication, but either working in a group or solo I never realized how much communication would come into play. Now, as I try to decide which I like best, I am chosing to stay nuetral and go day by day.

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