The lost generation

For now, I have a job. It's my first long term position after graduating. It took me over a year to get. It was a hard year. Yet I consider myself lucky.

Not only are the news filled with reports on youth unemployment, but about everyone I know is having a hard time. That's across the board. People get out of school and take ages to find a job. Diligently we send out applications. We explore every avenue and try to stay flexible. Yet answers rarely come. And when they do, they're mostly negative or vague. Many of us have very poor finances. Most of us have very little confidence.

Marriage statistics are down. You'd say it's down to changing customs. But it turns out most youths simply don't have the money. Weddings are a rip off.

If you're not convinced, think of what is happening in the middle east. Thousands of youths are so desperate that they'd rather die in peaceful protest against their corrupt governments then live another day with the status quo. I admire them. Their defiance gives me courage, but I fear their revolutions will ultimately fail to feed them.

It's clear to me, we won't have what the generation before us was given. Their opportunities and resources are for ever out of reach. They had plenty. So, they spoiled it all. They trashed the world and did not think a second of those to come.

Now we inherit a mess. If you have any doubt, look around you. What was an acute financial crisis became a dull and depressing slump. It will take years if not decades for the world economy to recover. The climate is starting to shift. Freak storms, droughts and rising food prices are becoming common place. Africa is starving. Yet this is just the beginning. Scientists tell us we've seen nothing yet.

And all we ask for is work. All we wish for is the chance to fix our world. Are any of us afraid of hardship? No. We were brought up with the promise that dedication would get us our dreams.

But now we are told our dreams are out of reach. We are called the lost generation and we will be sacrificed.

How much longer will we take it?

Space: the final frontier

The fact that we can now launch fleets of electronic gadgets into space to explore our universe blows my mind. I can barely contain my excitement.

Humanity can be so amazing. I just wish more of us would work at being brilliant instead of floundering around. For those who are interested, here are some cool "universal" stories:

• Want to look for aliens? At SetiQuest, scientists are in search of habitable planets. They've created a system that allows anyone to help them go through the huge amount of intergalactic data they receive from Hubble.
• The Dawn Mission is the story of a little satellite’s trip to the great astroids Vesta and Ceres in the hope of finding minerals and perhaps even water.
• Orphan planets are planets that don't orbit a star. It seems the poor things were kicked out of their solar systems at birth. But nobody knows for sure. It has to be said, they're quite hard to find in the first place! ;-)
• Three point eight billion years ago, the massive black hole at the center of our galaxy has eaten a star. We're seeing it now. I guess it's too late to say: bon appétit!
• The space shuttle Atlantis just finished its final flight in July. Endeavour and Discovery have been retired earlier this year. Rest in peace.

Many believe throwing money into space at a time where we can't even keep our own planet at check is a waste. It's a valid position. But I'm of those who argue that exploration is important for humanity. We need to be looking for answers. We need to be asking questions. It's crucial to our survival.

A schematic approach to people

Pencil 2.0

This is an idea I had in February 2010. I use pencils a lot. It irritates me that their erasers are so sort.