Hunter Holthaus
The seminar today was full of different ideas and opinions on chapter forty eight of the Tao Te Ching. I believe that we all did a great job on discussing the topics and creating a great Socratic seminar environment that people could easily put their input in and build off each others ideas to gain a better understanding of the text. For the most part people were able to talk when they wanted and the discussion was not too heated that participants would be intimidated to speak. Something that I thought I did well on was getting the points that I wanted to make out on the table so others could think about them. I thought that I could have brought more to the discussion but I didn’t want to dominate it so when I thought that I had a good idea I waited for a place to politely put it in and I did. I enjoyed the Socratic seminar today and I believe that I gained a much greater understanding of the Tao Te Ching.
The Tao Te Ching connects to everyone’s lives and the entire world in some kind of way. It’s a book full of philosophy and principals that help people to live a better life. We all follow Tao Te Ching because we are all human and it talks about human nature and how it works and what humans should do to become in harmony with the world. In chapter forty eight the Tao Te Ching states that the world is ruled by letting things take their course, it cannot be ruled by interfering. I think what the Tao Te Ching is saying here is that you cannot control the world and that the world and all living things in it will do what they do naturally. You are never going to be able to have complete control of everything in the world so do not try, just live you’re life
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
My Ki Gong Expierience
The Ki Gong class that we took was amazing. It had felt incredibly weird when I felt the energy in my hands; it was a throbbing, tingling sensation. It made me feel like I was pushing two oppositely charged magnets together when I was pushing the palms of my hands together. Everything in my body felt heavy as I focused on my breathing and not moving. It was some kind of trance I was in that allowed me to feel everything in my body. Once I was in this state of focus and being incredibly relaxed it was hard for me to come back to what was going on out side of my body. I didn’t want to leave that place or feeling that I was in but I did and realized what had just gone on and was amazed. I felt my Ki.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Food Farms-Vocab Quiz
Food Farms-Vocab Quiz
Imagine walking through a city and staring up thirty stories in the sky and seeing lush green farms at the tops of buildings. Dr. Dickson Despommier has a new idea that could make this fantasy a reality; he calls it a vertical farm. His idea is to create thirty story towers in Manhattan with farms on the roofs of them that can provide produce to fifty thousand people in the city. Some believe that this idea is not very realistic; the determinant being that in the city businesses might pay more for the high rise space than farmers. His idea is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make the thirty story farm.
Even though the costs of transportation of food are going up I believe that it would be almost impossible for vertical farms to make a profit even if their crops remain fertile. There planning on spending a hundred million dollars on constructing this farm but how are they planning on making all that back when all the farm space they have to cultivate fits on the roof of a New York City skyscraper. They simply can not compete with the major deity of the farming industry who has acres upon acres of farm land. Sometimes the primitive idea works best.
I believe that these vertical farms are very cool and flashy, and that people like to believe that crazy ideas like this can be successful spite the financial reality of it. Crazy ideas like this stay ideas for one main reason, money. Investors don’t like the idea of domesticating food on the roofs of buildings because it’s a dangerous new concept that doesn’t seem like it would make any profit, to them it seems silly. Before Dr. Dickson Despommier went out pitching his dream I think it would have been wise of him to make a visit to an economic advisor to see how he could codify his ideas in a way that it would make it look like what he has planned is profitable in some kind of way. In the end for this whole operation to work, its not going to be what Dr. Despommier believes is successful but what the corporate investors that are sedentary in some boardroom believe.
Imagine walking through a city and staring up thirty stories in the sky and seeing lush green farms at the tops of buildings. Dr. Dickson Despommier has a new idea that could make this fantasy a reality; he calls it a vertical farm. His idea is to create thirty story towers in Manhattan with farms on the roofs of them that can provide produce to fifty thousand people in the city. Some believe that this idea is not very realistic; the determinant being that in the city businesses might pay more for the high rise space than farmers. His idea is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make the thirty story farm.
Even though the costs of transportation of food are going up I believe that it would be almost impossible for vertical farms to make a profit even if their crops remain fertile. There planning on spending a hundred million dollars on constructing this farm but how are they planning on making all that back when all the farm space they have to cultivate fits on the roof of a New York City skyscraper. They simply can not compete with the major deity of the farming industry who has acres upon acres of farm land. Sometimes the primitive idea works best.
I believe that these vertical farms are very cool and flashy, and that people like to believe that crazy ideas like this can be successful spite the financial reality of it. Crazy ideas like this stay ideas for one main reason, money. Investors don’t like the idea of domesticating food on the roofs of buildings because it’s a dangerous new concept that doesn’t seem like it would make any profit, to them it seems silly. Before Dr. Dickson Despommier went out pitching his dream I think it would have been wise of him to make a visit to an economic advisor to see how he could codify his ideas in a way that it would make it look like what he has planned is profitable in some kind of way. In the end for this whole operation to work, its not going to be what Dr. Despommier believes is successful but what the corporate investors that are sedentary in some boardroom believe.
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