A brand new year...

It's officially 2008 and we have left behind the year 2007, but the past year will definitely not be forgotten, many things happened, great scientific discoveries to political mischief and mayhem, there were breakthroughs in stem cell research and we even learned that our primate counterparts not only have a better memory but are also capable of developing tools. There was a massive campaign towards the green side, everyone from news stations to prominent figures pondered or tried to come up with a way to teach people how to live a life with a smaller carbon footprint, progress was made at the climate change conference in Bali, while at the same time developing countries have started to build more coal plants to help sustain their growing economy. We saw NBC and Yahoo! start a green campaign by introducing more content to the public to help explain their need to reduce waste and the need to improve energy usage for a more sustainable world. We also saw the release of the new Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle from Honda called the FCX, while at the same time we learned about the setback of the release of the Tesla Roadster due to software glitches in the transmission system. But besides the topics in the Global warming front we also continued to see the disasters in the progress towards a more peaceful world. Violence broke out in Kenya disputing the results of the election. The assassination of Benazier Bhutto in Pakistan as well as the earlier protest by Pakistani lawyers over the state of emergency declaration from Musharraf, which led to state wide unrest and countless arrests, but perhaps it helped spur the shedding of the military uniform by Musharraf. Even with that momentous action there is still a dark cloud hanging over the political future of Pakistan as the parliamentary elections are set to take place in the coming month. In neighboring India we also heard about the talks regarding the Indo-US nuclear pact, we also saw the victory of the BJP party in Gujarat. But we also saw the violence between Hindu's and Christians in eastern India, the cause of which is still unknown with claims of attempted attacks of leaders by one side. Regardless, the year 2007 saw many things pass some more enriching then others but as many conflicts that may have arisen we saw the attempt at trying to alleviate them. But as I look back the question still remains what is the meaning of peace? As I put the question in the back of my mind I still stand in awe of the events of the past year and here's wising everyone a prosperous and peaceful 2008.