American Idol – The winner is???

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I do watch American Idol with my dear wife.  I watch the show as one way to spend time with my wife and to enjoy the theater of Simon Cowell. 

Any way, we are now down to the final five contestants, so I thought it would be a good time to weigh in on who I think will earn the crown of champion for Season Seven.  So here is how I have they are ranked: 

1. David Cook
2. David Archuleta
3. Syesha Mercado
4. Brooke White
5. Jason Castro

 The winner is David Cook.  David is the complete package.  With that said, Cook is one of the few contestants I look forward too seeing perform each week.  However as the last few weeks have demonstrated, nothing on this show is a given and the winner could very well be another David that is in the stable.  As Simon has said in the past which I paraphrase, “this is not a talent competition, but a popularity contest.”  How true this is…

Battlestar Galatica – The rise of the machines

Wow!  What an incredible start to the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica.  So far we have seen a Civil War erupt among the Cylons, a secret mission to find Earth, the death of a beloved crew member, a new representative on the Quorum of Twelve, the emergence of a Messiah, the foundations of totalitarian rule, and the ongoing question of who is the final Cylon.

Can you believe all this has occurred in the first three episodes?  What a ride this season has been so far and we haven’t even hit third gear yet!  One of the striking storylines that has gripped me is the maturation of the Cylon race.  Over the last few seasons we have watched as the cyborg Cylons mature into spiritual, sentient beings that recognize that there is a higher being who is directing the destiny of all living things…a la a single God.  What a remarkable evolution of a man-made species.

What is more striking is development of prejudice that the Cavil model has toward the Centurions and Raiders of the Cylon Empire.  To paraphrase, “They are not pets, but machines are made to be reprogrammed.”  Isn’t that the stance the humans took when they created the Cylons?  Look what happen when they were wrong – a revolution occurred.  Summitry is a wonderful thing. 

So what makes the Cylons better than their human creators?  What are the true reasons behind the war?  Could the real reason to destroy the humans have more to do with race and religion than anything else?  I think there is more truth here than meets the eye.  If Cavil is prejudice toward his own kind, what is stopping him or any other models from having the same feeling toward the humans? Throw in the difference in religious beliefs; you makings of old fashion religious war similar to wars that rage between the Christian Crusaders and Muslims of the Middle Ages on Earth.

 Since end of the third season, we have developed a better picture of majority of the Cylon modes:

1. Cavil
2. Leoben
3. D’anna (boxed)
4. Simon
5. Doral
6. Caprica (all destroyed?)
7. ???
8. Sharon (all destroyed minus Boomer & Athena?)
9. Chief Tyrol
10. Saul Tigh
11. Tory
12. Sam Anders

 The question that will not be satisfied quick enough this season is who is the twelfth model?  We know from interviews that Ronald Moore gave earlier this year that Bill and Apollo Adama, President, and possibly Starbuck were not the final Cylon.  So, who could it be?  I don’t have any proof only a gut feeling, but my money is on Tom Zarek the former revolutionary/terrorist and now Vice President of the Colonies.  What a great choose he would be.  A Cylon in place as a deep mole ready to grab the reins of power from the Humans when they are the cusps of finding Earth…how Shakespearian this would be. 

The rise in food prices – where will it end?

One of the themes from this year’s Earth Day is to continue encouragement of world governments to develop alternative fuels.  One of the avenues the United States government and several western nations have chosen for alternative fuels is biofuels.  Biofuels are “solid, liquid, or gas fuel consisting of, or derived from recently dead biological material, most commonly plants.”  Two of the most common ingredients of biofuels in this country are either sugar cane or corn/soybeans that produce ethanol.

With the acceleration of the demand for oil and price, Congress has mandated an increase in biofuels production.  This mandate has now turned our farmlands into instant gold mines for the struggling farmer.  However, every action has a reaction.  In this case, biofuels have taken a product from one market and moved it another, meaning corn that is normally grown for the world food market is now ending up in biofuels.  This change is causing worldwide food prices to increase due to limited supply and higher demand.  One particular food that is experiencing this rapid rise in price and demand is rice, which is a dietary stable in many of third world households.  Over the last few months the price for rise has increased 68% worldwide. 

Time to wake up America, the rapid rise in price of rice has now hit our beloved shelves.  Costco and Sam’s Club have announced a cap on the quantities of rice their customers can purchase at a given time.  For example, Sam’s Club is limited their customers to four 20-pound bags of rice per purchase.  This limitation is only targeted at imported jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rice. 

Rice is not the only food commodity that is under pressure.  There are other examples in last few months, for instance the shortage of hops which is causing the price of beer to increase, to bread shortages in Egypt to name a few.   So what does this mean? 

With our quest to protect the environment and move away for our dependence on oil/gas, I wonder as a society if we have thought through the ramifications of this decision?  Are we cutting off our nose to despite our face?  Is the environment more important than the human race?  All good questions… I guess our actions could be viewed as a form of Darwinism.  The more fortunate countries like the US, Canada, and the EU who can feed their people and absorb the increased food prices will prevail while financially challenged countries of the Third World will just stave to death and become shells of their former self. 

I guess that’s one way to help the environment and lower the human population all in one move.  I just didn’t think we would go to this extreme!  Let’s hope we wake up from this fog before it is too late.