Unpaid Internships: Where are they?

Anywhere you go today you'll meet some douche talking about how bad the economy is. People who continually talk about how much the country is in the shitter are not helping. Their negativity will affect you and chances are you'll go and tell 10 more people that week about the latest shitty news. We need less negative Nancy's and more positive Paul's if we're ever to recover from this slump. In times like these we need to think of the brighter side. After all, gas is half the price of what it was last summer.

Today there are over 2,000,000 people unemployed in California. This number is more than double what it was last year. I contribute to 1/2,000,000 of that number.


Experience Paying Opportunities, AKA Unpaid Internships

Sometimes people will do anything for a job, even if it means working for free. Unpaid work should only come in the form of volunteering. Although we've seen or heard about many unpaid internships, not many exist. Typical unpaid internships award you in the form of school credit or hands on training that can help you enter the industry of your choice. However, in the case where interns obtain hands on experience and are not paid for it, California labor laws are violated.

In order for an internship to be unpaid the following criteria must be met:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainee;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the completion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainee understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

Special emphasis needs to be given to number 4. Most of the time unpaid interns DO perform activities that give their employers an advantage, such as filing, cold calling, or any other menial task that they should be getting paid for. If any of these criteria are not met then, by law, the employer is required to obey California labor law and dish out a minimum wage, overtime pay, etc. This is why few unpaid internship actually exist.


Paying for Unpaid Internships

It sounds absurd, but people actually pay for the opportunity to acquire unpaid internships. I came across this hideous concept when I found out about the University of Dreams. The University of Dreams is a program that allows students the opportunity to acquire unpaid internships in the field of their dreams! By placing the student in a popular economic region like New York, Hong Kong, or London students pay an exuberant fee (upwards of $5000) to experience the working world. The fee includes room and board, transportation, meal plan, and planned group outings. It's summer camp for older spoiled kids!

Here is the University of Dreams' mission statement:


University of Dreams is a company of Dream Enablers. Our mission is to positively change culture on a mass level by identifying and recruiting Dreamers globally so that we can inspire, equip and challenge them through our products, services, charity and encouragement to discover and pursue their dreams. It is our dream to enable 1,000,000 Dreamers by the conclusion of 2020.


You don't have to pay a handsome sum of money to dream. Even if it involves a legitimate unpaid internship I still think this program is bogus. Somebody needs to wake up these Yuppie dreaming parents and tell them to tell their kids to go out and get an internship on their own. Are people that pathetic that they need to pay for something that would have cost them nothing, just to save themselves the expense of trying on their own? I used to think working for free was an outrageous concept, but paying to work for free? That truly is an American idea.

~Anthans

Another Day

"Another day, another foot in the grave."

My dad said this to me just now. I asked him "dad, how many feet do you have?"

People shouldn't look at life this way. Another day should mean another opportunity to fulfill your dreams, whatever those may be. For me it's following my to-do list. Sometimes it takes me days or even weeks to carry out my to-do list. In fact, I need to keep a constant reminder for myself on my phone of all the things I need to do. Here's what's on the desktop of my phone right now.

-Student Loan
-Clean Room
-Clean Car

The student loan part has been on there for weeks now. The last two are the latest additions. Why is it we need to keep everything clean all the time? It's as if we were maintaining a show room all the time. When clutter and dust begin to build up it makes us feel bad. We find ourselves cleaning a lot more than we thought we ought to be and the cycle is always beginning anew.

~Anthans

Reading and Writing Styles

These days I have time to do a lot of things, if I really wanted to. I devote a lot of that time towards reading. It's funny, I never used to enjoy reading. I would only read a book if I had to like if it was for school or an assignment. Now I find myself reading for pleasure. I usually read at least one book a week now, sometimes two. After completing each novel I find my opinions and attitudes slightly more skewed than they were before. Go figure.


Reading & Writing

I used to be a terrible writer. My sentences would run on farther than a Kenyan in a marathon and they certainly wouldn't have any direction either. When I started college my papers would get marked with more red than the Red Sea. I think this was mainly because I didn't expose myself to reading enough to get an idea of how things should be written. Sure there were textbooks that I read. You're a fool if you truly enjoy reading those. But maybe I would have enjoyed them more if I had to read them for pleasure. Whenever I read textbooks it was always to study for an exam or to write a paper. Books shouldn't be read just for that though. Reading for pleasure is truly one of the best freedoms we have.

Reading and writing are closely related. You can't be good at one without giving attention to the other. My problem was that I used to think writing was innate in me and that I truly enjoyed it. The truth was, unfortunately, I was bad at it. I used words incorrectly, inserted punctuation in the wrong places, and I never knew how to tell a good story. That's what writing is all about really, telling a good story. I used to think that the semicolon was my friend and that I could use it wherever I pleased; boy was I wrong.


Influences

The last book I finished reading was Catcher in the Rye. It's a good story, there's no doubting that. I benefited most from it by absorbing the style in which it was written: simple and easy to comprehend. Not every book should be written like a medical journal (however those are written). Rhetoric and jargon are for phonies. Catcher is written in a natural voice that we can all relate to (that is unless you enjoy talking like a phony).

A few weeks ago I finished reading a book about saving the Earth. For about a week I was raving mad about saving this planet. It's true, read my past blog entries. I even dedicated a three part series to it. The world felt like it was going to end within my lifetime. I know it sounds crazy but that's how these books mess with your mind. Books like The Revenge of Gaia can really have that effect on you. It could give you such a frightening feeling you would think it was Halloween and everyone was dressed up like madmen.

I guess I'm just easily influenced by things I like, that's all. That can't really be a crime can it? Some people get influenced by worse things. You know it's true. I don't even have to tell you how many things in the world can influence you to do bad things. Cults, business scams, crime, and corruption are just a few to name. I hope reading doesn't ever compel me to try any of those things.

~Anthans

North Warea

Any “explosion-affected persons” still around after Nagasaki or Hiroshima might have gone through a relapse this past weekend. North Korea, the isolated state under Kim Jong Il, launched a test missile yesterday which they claim was intended to put a satellite into orbit. The missile was launched from ____ in North Korea, flew over the Japanese basin, and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The missile test was widely claimed to be a failure by rocket experts. It makes me wonder how fast the missile raced over the Japanese spectators as it flew above their heads.

Because news rarely comes out of North Korea the international media has always held a close observation over it. When the media announced the long range ballistic missile they were planning to test every neighboring country rose up in protest. The voice heard from Seoul in South Korea was the loudest. The two countries have been feuding with each other since they were divided after World War II. Both act stubborn with each other concerning any form of diplomacy and it is unlikely that, in my opinion, a uniting of the two countries will ever take place.


Propagander

The South Koreans I’ve met usually have a common attitude towards North Koreans: pity towards them. It’s not their fault though that they think this way. Propaganda plays an integral role in shaping our opinions; this is true whether we’re ready to accept it or not. The media portrays North Korea as a sheltered nation under the shrewd ruling of one dictator, Kim Jong Il. The only facts and findings we are fed about this nation pertain to its shaky relations with other countries and its nuclear operations (that must be halted).

North Korea is one of the most impoverished nations in the world. Its people starve everyday worse than some of those in African countries. The sanctions and trade limitations posed on North Korea right now are so binding that it’s unlikely it will ever recover from its 1980's economic collapse. The only bargaining chip the North retains is its nuclear card: as if to say “give us your lunch money or else I’m going to beat you up after school!” Since this scare tactic began South Korea and the US have provided economic assistance to North Korea. In exchange for aid the North has accepted a cease-fire at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the North and South and also to pursue nuclear disarmament. North Korea is a nation highly dependent on other nations and it will try to continue this cycle as long as uranium is in its possession.

This past missile incident is no different: they’re just trying to scare us into giving them more lunch money again. It's not rocket science.

~Anthans

Gaia (jē'ə) or (Guy-Uh) part 3

nuClear your mind about Nuclear Energy

It is one author's opinion to solve our future energy crisis by means of nuclear energy. James Lovelock, author of The Revenge of Gaia, argues that the most important features of an energy source should be its measure of output and its cost efficiency. He reviews all of the existing forms of energy that we currently produce includeing wind, biofuels, fossil fuels, hydro, natural gas, and also nuclear.

Nuclear energy is not the end of the world; it is a means to keep it lasting longer. It is safer, more efficient, and contains less wasteful byproducts than we could ever expect from an energy source. There are two energy processes that are derived from nuclear energy: fusion and fission. I don't know how either of the two work specifically but I do know that they are both somewhat related to how the sun generates heat. Imagine the power to generate the sun's energy at our disposal. The good among us would use it for the betterment of mankind, and the bad would ultimately use it for its destruction. Both have already occurred.

The easiest way to comprehend the benefits of nuclear energy is to imagine this visual:

"Burning fossil fuels produces 27,000 million tons of carbon dioxide yearly, enough, as I mentioned earlier, to make, if solidified, a moutain nearly one mile high and with a base twelve miles in circumference. The same quantity of energy produced from nuclear fission reactions would generate two milion times less waste, and it would occupy a sixteen-metre cube." -John Lovelock

Radioactivity is not harmful to Gaia. It may lessen the lifespan of an organism but it is nothing in comparison to our clearing of lands for farming and the eliminating of rainforests. Just imagine a 16 meter cube of waste compared to the mountain that Lovelock describes. I can't imagine all forms of transportation switching to nuclear power right away, but it's certainly not outside the realm of possibilities.


Gaia: a Final Plea

My plea for Gaia can be summed up in the following paragraph.

The more carbon that continues to flood the air the warmer it will get. Large amounts of carbon continue to be secreted from cow farts and racecar drivers. The hotter this planet gets the more ice will melt away. Our planet's albedo, which is its ability to reflect light from the sun, is diminishing. Ocean levels are susceptible to rise which would lead to the annihilation of major coastal cities and would result in millions of refugees around the world. The only way to put the brakes on a likely irreversible heating of our planet is to invest in the right forms of energy. Because let's face it, we rely on energy like older celebrities rely on botox. The smartest energy source to pursue further is nuclear energy. It's safe, efficient, and does not produce a lot of waste. Just don't let terrorists use it for the wrong reasons.

And so the lobbying will continue...

~Anthans

Gaia (jē'ə) or (Guy-Uh) part 2

My father is as wise as he is weathered, but he doesn’t always see things clearly. After my younger sister expressed to him her interest in saving the environment he replied with the following:

“Stop trying to save the planet. There’s already enough people trying to do that.”

Gaia, our earth, our home, cannot sustain if this is our attitude towards it. It’s a huge task to take on, saving the earth. It is a task that has been set up by our own doings. Until recently Gaia used to regulate herself just fine throughout her 4.5 billion year existence. Our 100,000 + year residence on this planet has only recently began to become a threat towards its wellbeing. The age of industry that we currently live in has only been .1% of our time here as a species, but Gaia sees it as even less than that.


Global Warning

We’re all familiar to some extent with how the planet has been affected lately. How could we not be? It’s everywhere in the news.

• The ice caps are melting
• Carbon dioxide is filling the air
• Deforestation is becoming excessive
• The planet is heating up too rapidly
• Every corporation is going green

The last topic is the most recent to come into the limelight. Everybody is going green! It’s the new and hip thing to do (only because there’s money in it). So is the nature of human beings, to be driven by incentive. We are all naively convinced however that this green movement can make a difference from the minimal scale it is being launched. While we might have stopped using materials that create waste we still continue to build while simultaneously destroying ecosystems. Once an ecosystem is destroyed others begin to suffer the same fate. We’ve all seen a diagram of a food chain. Just imagine it as a tournament bracket where all the teams at the bottom start to get eliminated as you move up the chain.

Although weve been subliminally programmed to think otherwise, this planet is not just for us. Some say it’s a miracle that life even exists on this “rock.” But the theory of Gaia goes beyond acknowledging the earth as just a rock with life forms on it. Imagine viewing the earth as a whole, complete with its own self-regulating system for topography and climate, a unique inner geology, and ability to sustain a surface biology. That is Gaia in a nutshell. She is different from her terrestrial cousins, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. They all have no lives.


Green

If there’s a strong lobby for it in Congress, it can’t be good. Here are the measures currently being pushed for in environmental legislation:

• The building of more wind farms
• Bio fuels as a renewable source of energy
• Sustainable development
• Painting the White House green

The last one wouldn’t surprise me, but it’s indeed false. The rest are still fair game.

Wind power sounds good to most of us. It appears clean, simple, and can be put both onshore and offshore. What were not told however is how inefficient and cost defective it truly is. Whether it is generated on land or at sea wind energy is two and a half to three times more expensive per kilowatt hour than gas or nuclear energy. Also, with the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) attitude of people it is difficult to determine where these wind farms might be placed. Some people think they look hideous. But besides their high cost in maintenance and their appearance I see them as a small supplementary solution to alternative sources of energy. Great Plains anybody?

When used at a reasonable rate the burning of bio fuels poses little to no threat to Gaia. However, the great amount of farming it would take to rely on bio fuels as a renewable energy source is where the real danger comes into play. Gaia did not intend to have all of its hair trimmed so we could give it tattoos on every square mile of its surface. This is exactly what we’re doing. We’re defacing the surface to sustain our high demand for food. There’s 6 billion people too many on this planet and the number will continue to grow. How are all these people going to eat if some of the land used to farm is now going to our gas tank?

As I mentioned before any new development is a problem because of the danger it poses to ecosystems. Irregardless of how “sustainable” the development is in the end a new building is being erected where once stood the habitat of one of Gaia’s children. Sustainable development entails the use of environmentally friendly materials to build (first of all it’s not very friendly to the environment to deface it). I believe that true sustainable development will come when the machines that we use to build are sustainable (i.e. tractors, cranes, trucks, etc.) Companies that now pride themselves on recycling only engage it in it because they’ve realized its cost savings. Also, because sustainable development is the latest craze a booming market has sprouted from it. There are new jobs to be filled, new things to be built and renovated, and more money to be made. I can see why the slogan “Going Green” is so appropriate.

*****

When I used to think of nuclear energy two words used to come to mind: Armageddon and meltdown. After looking into it further I’ve discovered how vital nuclear energy could be towards prolonging humanity. I will discuss this further next time.

To be continued…

~Anthans