Maytag recalls 1.7 million dishwashers

This article is informing all the people who have Maytag dishwashers that their dishwashers can cause a fire in their home. Maytag recalled 1.7 million dishwashers because they are known to start small fires. However in some cases, these small fires can amount to something much bigger. Reporters say that the Maytag repair man is going to be busy.

Companies that have been known for great quality, what’s going on?! Toyota and now Maytag? I know that everybody is capable of making mistakes but come on! People trust you and buy your product because you are supposed to be the best of the best. If you are not sure about something in your product, don’t skip steps just so you can get the product out faster! Make sure it works before you bring it into someone innocent life.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/06/03/dishwasher.recall/index.html?hpt=Sbin

NY to conduct civil ceremonies for gay couples

This article describes the actions of a New York City clerk’s office and how they are allowing gay couples a domestic ceremony. Since then the office has only been allowed to hand out certificates of marriage to the couples. The city mended their rules some and the office took advantage of it. They are now adding what they call “fanfare” to the unions and to conduct marriage-like ceremonies to the gay couples. The domestic couples still don’t receive the same all the rights that married couple does they are allowed to receive hospital visitation and health benefits.

My thoughts on this article are that this is a good step towards less and less discrimination. These ceremonies are probably making the gay couples very happy yet I can see why they want more. They should have the right to have the same ceremony that a regular couple does for marriage. If not, it’s like saying that a black person can’t get married to a white person. And that would be a big taboo around the country. Uproars would start and all hell would break lose. However for the gay couples…well they just don’t even get a change because it is still against the law for them to even be together.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/03/ny-to-conduct-civil-ceremonies-for-gay-couples/?hpt=Sbin

More efforts to cap the oil spill

This article talks about BP’s latest attempt to stop the oil from spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico. They have been unsuccessful yet but are trying to get ahead and gain some lost ground. The spill is affecting many. Not only is the coastline suffering but the amount of fishing area is being restricted. Its newest attempt to cap the spill was to drill into the well again to cap it. However the diamond edged saw they were using was jammed and they could no longer continue with the procedure. They are now using a robotic arm cutting device that will make a smoother cut and hopefully not get jammed. BP says this is a difficult process because 5,000 feet under water however they are trying everything they can think of and that they only want to stop it. They are funding a $360 million dollar project to block the oil from the cost with sand.

This oil spill has caused many upsets among America and the world. However has any stopped and thought about why this happened? My thoughts say that this would have never gotten so bad if BP would have had a back up plan that was actually tested and proven reliable. But no. They didn’t have a back up plan that was tested and when their backup plan failed miserably they sat there and said uhh ohh. If you are a company that wants to drill off shore even though everyone is saying not too because it is to hard to cap a spill, you better have 3 or more reliable plans to fall on if something did go wrong. I am grateful however that they are willing to pay for the project trying to prevent more danger to the shores of America.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/02/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Oil spill could be disaster for animals

This article talks about how many different species are being affected by the oil spill. Most of the animals are birds considering they are on the top of the water which means they are directly on the oil. What the oil does to them is basically destroys their skin and gets into their lungs and eventually killing them. Birds are not the only ones. Fish, shrimp, oysters, otters, dolphins and even sperm whales are being affected. Some species are still recovering from other disasters like hurricane Katrina. Experts say that something drastic needs to happen or the wildlife along the shore will suffer great losses.

I think that the government and BP needs to cap the oil leak first and then worry about wild life. If they don’t cap it then it will keep spilling into the shore and killing more animals. Once they do that then they need to step it into high gear and start getting people down there to help clean the animals and save the ones that need saving. We as a country cannot just sit here and watch the news and expect that the world will work itself out. We need to come together and do something.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/oil.spill.wildlife/index.html