Made to Break

Many themes seem to converge in the text of Made to Break. Throughout the chapters that we have read so far there seems to be two very similar advances that stuck out. One was radio. It went from strictly AM broadcasting to FM, which is what everyone uses still today. AM radio did not even compare to FM. AM has a bunch of static and the quality is not good at all. FM is clear and sounds great! AM radio history compared to FM.
Another item that was used over another was nylon. It replaced silk. Nylon was less expensive and was made very durable at first. Wallace Carothers created Fiber 66, also known as nylon. This new innovation made silk not wanted as much. Nylon was cheaper and was "new." People seem to like new items more than the old. If there is a new fashion out there everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and try it out. This is similar to radio because FM radio was the newer and better invention. People wanted to listen to FM more because it was much better to listen to and comprehend. The whole book is about newer technologies making the older ones obsolete, and these two innovations show that well.
Slade does well talking about the different technologies that were created and replaced, but he uses a lot of unnecessary information. I am more interested what products were replaced, not the history of the people in history. He also talks a lot about different authors and people in history. He references a lot of different authors that wrote about the same thing he is trying to present. I believe that he trys to back up his information too much. It is good that he does it, but he does it a lot and too often. He just needs to focus more on obsolescence and not so much on the people.

Topic for proposal

For my proposal topic I want to focus on Going Green. I want to show how our habits right now are not good for the environment, and that if we don't start doing something that our world will be in a downward spiral. I have sort of a working thesis right now: If people do not start taking care of the environment and realize that they are emitting harmful waste, then the world will deteriorate and the carbon footprint will increase dramatically.
I will show all the bad things we are doing to the environment, and that if we do not start taking action what will happen to our world. I will present actions that we can start taking to improve the quality of our environment and make our world a better place to live.

Sources:

Dwyer, Todd. "Our 15-Day Green Adventure." 23 Oct 2008. ReGeneration. 25 Oct 2008
.

Go Green Initiative. 2007. Go Green Initiative. 25 Oct 2008 org/>.

"Go Green! Monthly Newsletter." 2008. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
25 Oct 2008 .

FGCI

I believe that having FGCI here at the university is going to change a lot of things campus wide. Listening to Dr. Reed speak was quite motivational. He gave us the cold hard facts and showed us what was being done on campus. When he told us that some lights stay on all day and night it floored me. I immediately thought that that is our money being wasted. We the students have to pay for a lot of the energy used here with our tuition money. That makes me mad. Why should we have to pay for someone not turning off a light? Shouldn't something be done about that? The best solution would be to put in motion lights. Then the lights will turn off if there is no one around. It turns the light off and saves a lot more energy than anyone would think. I think the Green Initiative is an excellent idea for the campus and also for our environment. It will get students involved and teach them about the environment and what we can do to make a difference. If we don't start saving energy now, our world will detrioate.
Dr. Reed's speech made me want to get involved in the FGCI. In my cottage I am making my roommates recycle and I have asked them to turn off lights and the TV when they are not in use. Even though we do not have to pay for the electricity, it is still wasting energy and that is not good. I also started saving my water bottles and just filling them up with tap water instead of constantly buying more cases of water. I am trying to do my part in helping the environment, and I hope this speech led others to do the same.
This speech correlates quite a bit with the themes we are studying, especially obsolescence. If we keep throwing items away and not recycling then eventually they will be no more, because wasting energy and electricity makes it harder for manufacturers to create the items. Everything coincides. We could stop wasting so much oil as well. If new, more efficient cars are created then the need for oil will lessen, and we will have more oil to use elsewhere. We can do our part little by little to help the environment and save our world!

Obsolescence in my life

Throughout my life I have experienced quite a bit of obsolescence, but the one that I think I have experienced the most is cell phones. I have had a cell phone since I started driving at age 16. We have a 2 year contract with Alltel so every 2 years I get to renew my contract and upgrade my phone. The phone could be working perfectly fine, but I want a newer and better one! Sometimes my phone has broken and I have had to get a new one before the contract is up. That cost money but I got a new phone so the other phone became obsolete. Many people experience this. I don't know many people that don't have cell phones. If it is time for an upgrade they get a newer, more stylish phone. It has to work well and have a lot of features or people don't really want to buy them.
This obsolescence isn't always a bad thing though. Technology is always changing and it is usually better when it changes. Cell phones have really advanced over time. Most cell phones these days have internet, email, cameras, etc. People like these features on their phones because it is always there when they need it. It's "convenient". Americans these days are always looking for easy and convenience in technology. Pretty soon people will be able to do everything from there phone, even their jobs! This is why obsolescence isn't a bad thing.
I have also experienced obsolescence in clothing. My style always changes when there are new fashion trends. The styles that aren't in anymore just sit in my closet or I give them away. They can be perfectly good clothes, but if I don't like them then I don't want them! I buy new 'cooler' looking clothes so I look trendy and fashionable. This is what most young Americans also do. I give my clothes to Salvation Army or Goodwill, so I do not technically throw them away and they may get wore down before they are thrown away, but it is still obsolescence in my eyes.

Chapter 2 theme and reaction

Made to Break is very interesting to me! I never want to stop reading it even though I have to! Chapter 2 brought some things to my attention that I had no idea even happened. I think the basic theme for this chapter was how psychological obsolescence took over the manufacturing of cars in the early years of production. The manufacturers changed models often to satisfy their customers that tune into the customers styles and likes. The Model T had quite a bit of competition in this aspect. Henry Ford had many manufactures trying to make his Model T obsolete, and it worked. Henry could not make the model of his car work with the styles that many consumers were wanting. He struggled a lot throughout his manufacturing days. This was surprising to me. I did not know that Henry Ford had such a hard time selling his models of cars. He did try to make his model the way people wanted them at that time, but all of his models just weren't working. It surprises me that he could not get his model more stylish. The psychological obsolescence focuses the attention of the consumer on the visual aspects of various products, and the Model T was not what consumers were attracted to at the time. GM and other car manufactures came out with cars that were more appealing to the consumers and that caused Ford to kind of fizzle out for a bit. They were not making cars that women liked and they were not classy and stylish for the people who could afford the cars. Those people wanted to flaunt their cars and show that they were stylish and in tune to the styles of the times. Basically the chapter was all about how Ford couldn't keep up with the changing times, and how psychological obsolescence took over the manufacturing market.

What The Prize means to me

The Prize is a very interesting book. The three basic themes I got from the book were the how oil has been found and maintained throughout the world, the people who were involved with oil, and how oil has impacted our lives and the lives of many other people throughout history.

The book started off by finding oil in Pennsylvania. Oil was initially used for light, but now is a huge asset to our every day lives. As soon as word was out that oil had been found, the oil industry boomed with people trying to start up businesses and maintain a fortune. Oil kept surfacing in many places throughout the U.S. and eventually many places throughout the world. Many businesses came about as oil was being found. Standard Oil was the biggest player and maintained that position for many years. Oil had to have a way to travel and in the beginning it was by train on the railroads, but eventually it turned to oil tankers used to ship the oil across seas. Texas was a huge success for oil throughout history, but it also caused a lot of conflict between the various oil companies.

Finding oil was something that many people wanted to do in their lives. It meant money and was called "liquid gold." There were many companies throughout history that contributed to the oil boom. The biggest player in history was Standard Oil, and the founder of that was John Rockefeller. Another key player in the Standard Oil business was Walter Teagle. He was head of Standard of New Jersey. He played a huge role throughout the history of oil. Shell was another big player in the oil business. Marcus and Samuel Samuels were the founders of Shell. After awhile Shell merged with Royal Dutch to make Royal Dutch Shell. Henri Deterding was a major player in Royal Dutch Shell. Those are just a few of the major companies in the early years of oil, but oil has certainly come a long way from that. All of these man named were wealthy man from oil and were huge players who basically made oil what it is today.

Without oil our lives would be pretty bland. Oil was first used in lighting and then became used in almost anything we use today. Oil is used in almost all of our every day products and without it we would be lost. Transportation would be much slower. We would be in a dark world. Many of the cleaning products we use would be non-existent unless they were made from something other than oil. Oil is something that many people take for granted and without it we wouldn't be where we are today.

The Prize basically shows how greedy and selfish people can be when something as powerful as oil in put out on the market. Many of the man were manipulative and played "dirty" in the oil industry. It really showed the true colors of many people throughout history. Many of these men were very wealthy and I think they may have taken that for granted sometimes.