The younger generation gets a pretty bad rap these days. They’re often depicted as shallow, selfie-obsessed snowflakes who spend all of their time looking at their phones, texting emoticons to each other, and failing to actually experience the real world.
No doubt some young people fit that mold — but not all. Consider Fionn Ferreira, an 18-year-old from Ireland who just won the $50,000 grand prize at the 2019 Google Science Fair for coming up with a process for removing microplastics from the ocean.
Plastics of all kinds are clogging our waterways and oceans, wreaking havoc for marine life. Larger pieces of plastic can be removed with nets and mesh scoops, but microplastics — which are defined as bits of plastic that are less than 5 mm long — pose a different problem. They are so small that they escape water filtration systems, end up in rivers and oceans, and are ingested by all kinds of fish and marine animals. They end up in humans, too — especially if the humans tend to drink a lot of bottled water. But how can something so small be successfully removed from the world’s waterways?
Fionn, who lives in a coastal town in southwest Ireland, noticed tiny bits of plastic sticking to an oil-covered rock. Based on that observation, he began experimenting with a substance called ferrofluids to see whether they also would attract microplastics — because chemistry teaches that like attracts like. His experiments showed that microplastics adhere to ferrofluids, and ferrofluids, and the microplastics attracted to them, can then be removed from waters through the use of magnets — leaving the water free of microplastics.
Fionn Ferreira’s use of ferrofluids to attract microplastics is an elegant but practical solution to a significant problem, and it’s based on a real-world observation — which is often the source of scientific discovery. Thank goodness he didn’t have his head buried in his cellphone when he passed that oily rock on the Irish coast!
It’s also admirable that the Irish made drinking beer an essential part of St. Patrick’s Day. Sure, we know St. Patrick had something to do with chasing snakes off the island, but most people associate the holiday with beer. Beer drinking also is an essential part of the culture of the Germans, the Brits, the Belgians, and even the French, but the Irish have co-opted it completely. Years ago, some savvy Irishman obviously understood that focusing a holiday on beer-drinking is bound to increase the amount of participation. 
In my view, the most important issue confronting our country is our federal deficit and national debt — the latter of which has passed the $16 trillion mark. I care about other issues, of course, but I view our debt as the most fundamental issue of all because it involves basic concepts of national sovereignty. Our debt is so large, and has existed for so long, that we tend to think of it as a kind of abstraction . . . but every dollar of that debt is a real obligation of our country, reflected in an instrument sold by the U.S. treasury to a willing buyer who will be paid a specified interest rate. With each additional bit of borrowing, we give those people from whom we are borrowing leverage that may allow them to dictate terms — at first, the terms of the debt instruments, by insisting on higher interest payments, and then eventually the terms of how our government operates, by dictating whether we need to adopt austerity measures in how our country operates if we hope to obtain additional loans. At that point, our national sovereignty is at stake.
I don’t think President Obama places a high priority on grappling with our deficit and debt problems. He’s talked about them, but his actions speak louder than his words. He continues to propose budgets that would result in trillion-dollar debts for years into the future, and continues to propose the creation of new federal agencies and federal programs as the solution for every problem. He hasn’t used the bully pulpit of the presidency to encourage Congress to act. I’ve seen nothing from President Obama to indicate that his performance over the next four years on this crucial issue of national sovereignty would be any different than his performance over the past four years.
Who’s number 1? The wine-swigging French? Nope, they barely crack the top 15, finishing at number 14. What about Ireland? That would be wrong, too — the Irish barely beat out the French, finishing at number 13. How about our vodka-guzzling Russian buddies? Closer, but not quite. The Russians finish at number 4. No, the top three are Hungary, the Czech Republic, and overall winner Moldova. The studly Moldovans pound down 18.22 liters of alcohol per capita and they apparently aren’t picky, either: they drink about as much spirits (4.42 liters) as beer (4.57 liters) and wine (4.67). In short, Moldovan partiers will be happy to drink just about anything you put in front of them before they collapse.
The 
Webner House 