Media Convergence Initiative

Feminism is not a new concept by any means , the movement has been stirring for decades, going back to before women even had the right to vote or own land. In today’s generation feminism is using a new platform to spread the cause around. With every moment, there are always extremists, that can give it a bad name, but to me feminism is the belief in equal rights and treatment of both sexes.

A trend I began noticing recently, is the feminist move in music. There are several mainstream female artists who are flipping the script, and creating a stir. Artists like Christina Aguilera and Beyonce have been voicing their opinions for a while.

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With emissions regulations taking over the entirety of the motor industry, and the planet running out of oil for fuel, much time is being invested by auto makers to improve the technology of hybrid and electric cars. Tesla did this with the astonishing 100% electric Model S, and are constantly exploring ways to maximize the efficiency of electrical energy running cars. Hybrid technology is also constantly being revised, with Porsche, McLaren, and Ferrari releasing a new breed of hypercars that run on hybrid platforms. This is extremely important because it shows how cars can still be massively fast and also eco-friendly. Porsche’s 918 Spyder, for example make generates nearly 900 horsepower, yet can do 47 miles to the gallon. That is an incredible engineering accomplishment.

However, while it is all fine and dandy that electricity is being incorporated so successfully into the motor industry, there is still a technology that has been ignored, and technically is a far better solution to the emissions problem. That technology is Hydrogen power.

Hydrogen has been regarded as a viable fuel for many years, and has also found its fair bit of development in the motor industry. The use of hydrogen power has mainly been found in cars powered by hydrogen fuel-cells, which essentially is a system that uses the hydrogen fuel to generate electricity to power an electric motor that drives the wheels. This has already been used in production cars. A few years ago, Honda released a car named the FCX Clarity, which was only sold in California and ran on a hydrogen fuel-cell system. The only gas to escape the exhaust: H2O.

Other brands have been exploring the hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine. BMW has been developing this technology since the late 80s, and in 2006 release a limited production model dubbed the Hydrogen7, which was effectively a BMW 760 with the same V12 engine, but could run on either hydrogen or gasoline at the flick of a switch. When running on hydrogen power, all that came out of the exhaust was water vapor.

Hence, that technology exists, and has existed for many years, and I think car manufacturers should work to keep developing that technology and expand its infrastructure, finally solving the CO2 frenzy; to run electric and hybrid vehicles, fossil fuels are still needed and, though to a lesser extent, still will contribute to the release of CO2, with hydrogen technology, all we need is the most abundant element in the universe.

Green food may mean party time in America, where St. Patrick’s Day has long been an excuse to break out the food dye. But in Ireland, where the Irish celebrate their patron saint on March 17, green food has bitter connotations that recall the nation’s darkest chapter, says historian Christine Kinealy.

The reason, Kinealy explains, is the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, which forced so many Irish to flee mass starvation in their homeland in search of better times in America and elsewhere. Those who stayed behind turned to desperate measures.

“People were so deprived of food that they resorted to eating grass,” Kinealy tells The Salt. “In Irish folk memory, they talk about people’s mouths being green as they died.”

At least 1 million Irish died in the span of six years, says Kinealy, the founding director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Which is why, for an Irishwoman like Kinealy, who hails from Dublin and County Mayo, the sight of green-tinged edibles intended as a joyous nod to Irish history can be jolting, she says.

“Before I came to America, I’d never seen a green bagel,” she says. “For Irish-Americans, they think of dyeing food green, they think everything is happy. But really, in terms of the famine, this is very sad imagery.”

Of course, Americans have long embraced St. Patrick’s Day traditions that might bemuse the folks back in Ireland, where festivities are a lot more subdued, Kinealy notes.

For instance, St. Paddy’s Day Parades? Those originated here in the late 1700s. (George Washington was known to give his Irish soldiers the day off so they could join the celebrations, she says.)

And that quintessential dish of the holiday, corned beef — it may be delicious, but it’s most definitely not Irish.

As Smithsonian.com noted last year, in Gaelic Ireland, cows were a symbol of wealth and a sacred animal, kept more for their milk than their meat — which was only consumed once an animal’s milking days were over. In the Irish diet, meat meant pork. It wasn’t until Britain conquered most of Ireland that Irish “corned beef” came into existence — to satisfy the beef-loving English.