The question I'd like to discuss is why Orwell devoted so much attention to the elephants misery. What I took out of it was that those were his own feelings of in the situation he was in. Meaning he was left struggling in a predicament with only one out come, but not the same as the elephants fate. Throughout the story Orwell speaks of being displaced in land that brings him nothing but turmoil. He receives little to no respect from the locals and was mocked profusely in his daily routine. In the story he states the elephant was breathing rhythmically with long rattling gasps after the first initial shots. Orwell endured his routine even though he was a European in a anti-European setting, which probably left him gasping for air as well. Orwell said he waited a long time for the elephant to die , but its' breathing never weaken. So he decides to shoot the elephant with the two remaining rounds in the heart. With little political power the locals could do nothing but taunt and torture Orwell on the football fields and in the streets. They did this to try and rid him, much like Orwell did with the remaining two bullets for the elephant.
The story states the elephant did not even jerk and its gasping breaths continued with out a pause. In the same respect Orwell continues his post knowing he is locked into a ever repeating cycle of taunts and ridicule. After the shoots the elephant lays in agony, but in a far off mental state so the bullets were not even felt. Orwell felt the same agony for his situation, but could do nothing at all to help it. After a while he felt enlightened because he understood the locals strife with the imperialist power. In that aspect it was much the same as the elephants mental state because he knew why the insults and football field incident had to happen. As the elephant lay there slowly dying Orwell sends for his second gun. He shoots the elephant twice more but to no avail. Even though Orwell endured everything he had, it still was not enough to kill him, much like the elephant. The elephant never stopped breathing so Orwell decides to leave. The elephant finally dies, but Orwell was not around at the time to witness it. In the same sense, Orwell left India before the imperialist rule was over as well. My only guess for that would be he wanted to leave alive, and not perish like the elephant.

One of the questions I'd like to discuss is from the story My Mother Never Worked. The question it poses is if the story is still relevant even tho it was first published in 1975? In my personal opinion the story is still undoubtedly relevant. The tasks of a house wife today might not be as labor intensive as it was in yesteryears, but is every bit as strenuous, never ending, and might even include tasks that would not have been left up to women of the time. In the story the mothers every day routine included caring for her children, as well as tending to livestock and overseeing a half acre garden.
The mother from the story keep her children clothed by painstakingly mending, hemming, and sewing cloths for each of her eight offspring. A house wife of todays standards possibly does the same thing, but only as a hobby. More often than not she just takes her kids shopping probably leading to arguments because the cloths are too expensive or what have you. According to the story the mother feed and cared for livestock and presided over a half acre garden. In todays automated world much of that is replaced by supermarkets, but it doesn't necessarily completely simplify things. A house wife still has to fight traffic to get there and then deal with the task of buying food for the families' personalized tastes. The later in itself can be a perplexing burden.
House wifes of the past where often burdened with labor of back breaking proportions. Today's house wife probably doesn't endeavor as much, but does take on a multitude of new tasks. One of those tasks is being a personal secretary of her children's daily routine. I see mothers ushering their kids to school, sporting events, music lessons, and just about any other activity you can throw out. Mothers work harder than most secretaries at corporate offices to make sure their kids are where they need to be when they need to be. A lot of times house wifes are now in charge of the financial situations of the household. They are regularly managing checkbooks, paying off credit cards, bills, and accountable for making investments.
So really, the house wifes of times long past absolutely physically worked harder, but present house wifes still have their work cut out for them. Even though their work doesn't necessarily relate their hardships could obviously be felt by one another. I will have to say that this story still relates in probably more was than I could ever describe.

On the eve of President elect Obama inauguration a lot of talk arises about alternative energy sources. This subject seems to be on the tips of every ones tongues wherever you go. I do support the changeover to more renewable sources of energies, but at the same time have major concerns with them as well. My greatest concern is, are they going to be as cost effective as the resources we are currently using. This concern mainly falls in the category of fossil fuels. The need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels is a colossal debate at the moment. Some alternatives such as hybrids, ethanol, hydrogen, and battery powered vehicles are leading candidates in this category. The hybrids are a decent choice but still rely on fossil fuels at times to recharge the battery cells. Ethanol is vanishing quickly as a solution due to the need for vast amounts of corn or algae needed to produce the fuel. Hydrogen is my personal choice in part because of its ease of availability. A major problem with hydrogen is its weight. A gallon of gas weights less than a gallon of hydrogen so storage for the fuel becomes a problem. The technology for battery operated cars has not yet come along, therefore limiting their travel range to usually two hundred to two hundred fifty miles. So until these technologies advance a bit more I believe we are better off using fossil fuels, because according to the Hubbert Peak we are not in danger of running out soon.
My final concerns is with the green energy sources such as solar power, wind turbine power, and geothermal power. Solar power is a viable source, but the current solar cells only produce about fifteen percent efficiency. There are solar cells that are now producing forty one percent efficiency, but cost nearly one hundred thousand dollars a square yard. Wind turbine power is my personal favorite, but it too comes at a cost. According to a study in 2006 it cost around fifty five dollars per megawatt hour for a wind turbine, around fifty three dollars for a MW h of coal, and around fifty two dollars for a MW h of natural gas. Another draw back is the intermittency of wind, meaning no wind no power. Geothermal power are very plausible mainly due to the fact that geothermal plants require no fuel to operate it. The only draw back I see is that much of the heat energy is lost when extracting the fluid making the plant not quiet as efficient as a coal plant. In the coming months and years I believe a lot of these issues will be resolved. Obama promised a switch to renewable energy in the near future under his administration and I hope it all starts tomorrow.