High Gas Prices

According to a BBC article, oil prices increased to $68 a barrel, which is a six month high. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6506005.stm# Gas prices in the bay area are easily greater than $3 per gallon and one main contributor to this is the problem with the West and Iran. Earlier this week the British sailors that are being held hostage in Iran were broadcast on television, which increased hostility between Iran and the West. This, in addition to the extremely high demand and diminishing supply of oil, is continuing to cause gas prices to increase. Iran has also been trying to gain nuclear power which is causing tensions to grow. The article says that the shipment from Iran has continued to remain constant, but there are fears that they may begin to decrease.
The high gas prices have caused people to look elsewhere for transportation. I have noticed there are more people taking the light rail to work and school, probably to save money. I am glad that I don't have to drive a long distance to work or school, but some people commute over an hour to work. Also, the demand of SUVs may begin to decrease because of the high gas mileage that they have. The problems with the West and Iran have greatly affected all of these things.

Second Life

I first heard about the term "Second Life" in my Bus188 class earlier this semester. My teacher explained that it was a website where people could walk around a mall and go into different shops and buy various items except it is done on a computer. People do not even have to leave their homes in order to go shopping. They control a person by using the mouse and keyboard and they can walk around a virtual mall and actually buy items. But I thought that this was pointless because people go shopping online all the time on different websites. Also, it seemed similar to a video game called "Sims" in which the player creates a person and does various activities. However, this idea of "Second Life" has grown tremendously over the past few years. According to the article found on the following link, http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_5545786?nclick_check=1 there are more than 5 million members. One of the reason for the huge growth is the money generated through advertising and buying and selling large amounts of goods. Large corporations pay for advertising space so that consumers will see it as they walk through the virtual mall.
The article focuses on the educational use of Second Life. Stanford has used it to create a "virtual museum" to show a professor's work. It is great that people around the world are able to enter the museum from their computer and see the artwork from Stanford. Without Second Life, people would only be able to view it in real life. I think that Second Life will continue to become more popular as more people learn about it and understand how useful it can be.