I don’t want to make Colin do all the work starting discussion on this blog so I’ll try to do my part.
Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, or if people on the internet are to be believed, the 40th anniversary of the landing on a movie set in Hollywood. Just recently we learned that NASA taped over the original tapes of the moon landing, which to the conspiracy theorists, shows that the government is trying to cover up the evidence of their hoax, but to the rest of us just shows how incompetent government agencies can be. It’s no wonder we haven’t been back to the moon for so long and now our country’s space shuttles are falling apart.
This leads me to my question, how much should we really care about our space program? The government currently spends about 17 billion a year or about .6% of the national budget (or so says Wikipedia) on NASA. Should we be investing in our space program to once again be the envy of the world, or should we be taking money from NASA and putting it to programs which can help people right now or in the near future? (a generic humanitarian goal such as “helping the poor” or alternative energy / medical research) Is space exploration and scientific discovery a worthy enough goal to give priority over more immediate issues?
For those who are interested in politics or scandals, there’ve been a few big stories recently. (governor Sanford, senator Ensign, and I think there was another one) The question is should it matter to the voters if a politician has an affair? Do personal moral flaws cast a politician’s ability to govern into doubt, or is it the lying to the public that is the problem? As far as I’m concerned, it shouldn’t matter if no laws have been broken, however if the scumbag in question tries to campaign on “family values” or criticize others (both Sanford and Ensign called for Clinton to resign) then I probably wouldn’t vote for him for that reason.
Finally, Harry Potter 6 came out recently, I haven’t seen it yet, can anyone say whether it’s any good? I have pretty low expectations for this one, but I suppose I could be surprised. I’ve got a coupon for a free ticket, so at worst I’d only be wasting time if I do go. Also has anyone seen Bruno? I liked Bruno on the Ali G show, but I’ve heard there are a few things in the movie that I definitely don’t want to see… And for anyone who’s seen both HP and Bruno… which is more gay?
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Initially formed in the fall of 2004, the CGS Riverbend Class of 2008 had been together of an epic four years of high school. It disbanded in 2008 after graduation, but it still remains the best in all of CGS history.
16 comments:
First off, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. To all the conspiracy theorists out there, NASA recently released images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which show the Apollo 11 lander still sitting on the surface of the moon. The images and article can be seen here:
http://news.aol.com/article/apollo-landing-sites-spotted-by-lunar/577205
(yes its only AOL news but the article was actually taken from space.com- a legit source, I just happen to have read it on AOL). As for the future of the space program, I believe that it actually, in the distant future, is the only thing that can save the human race. No, the funding for the space program won't immediately affect anybody, it is necessary for the survival of the human race, just ask Stephen Hawking. On a secondary note, it is, I believe, the nature of humans to wonder about the world around them and to explore. We have explored most of the Earth (the notable exception being the bottom of the ocean), and the natural thing for us to do is to continue exploring. I for one want to know if there is anything else out there. Are we just some unique event in the vastness of space? I would say certainly not. If the universe is truly infinite, then ever possible combination of everything must exist. Now we may never know for certain, because we can only see 13 billion light years or so (the age of the universe) so we can't see anything outside of that 13 billion lightyear sphere surrounding the Earth. But I think its in human nature to want to know whats out there. Which is why we should continue, if not bolster our funding for NASA.
Also, I saw Harry Potter. The movie was well made, but its just too hard to fit a giant ass book into a 2.5 hr movie, so a bit of stuff got left out. Correct me if i'm wrong, but wasn't there a fight on the rooftop thing after snape kills dumbledore? Maybe I'm just making that up, because I haven't read the book in a while. The movie was well done, though. Haven't see Bruno
That doesn't count, those were taken by NASA, clearly they could have faked those pictures too, wake up sheeple! (By the way, I love the xkcd comic about the moon landing and youtube) http://xkcd.com/202/
I agree about it being important to explore space, even if there aren't many immediate rewards (and NASA has done lots of stuff to improve the world today) it might not be as important as some other issues and scientific endeavors, but we can surely find money to support NASA too. Also, I don't think it'll be too long before private companies start to take the lead in the "space race." Once we reach that threshold where space travel doesn't require massive government support, it will get really interesting.
I haven't read it in years either, but there was a battle in the castle at the end, I think it still focused mainly on Dumbledore, but there wasn't that much action in the rest of the book. That's one of the things that I didn't like about the 5th movie, the fight scene at the end, which should be the best part, was really disappointing. (also, I wish John Williams was still doing the music, that would help)
I saw Harry Potter! It was my definitely my favorite one yet! I heard there was a new director, and that makes sense to me-- it was a lot darker than the other movies. But then again so was the book.
Jake, I don't remember if there was a fight on the rooftop, but there was definitely a huge one in the middle of the castle. But in the movie all they had was Bellatrix break the great hall and set Hagrid's hut on fire.
Also, where was the werewolf? I was really looking forward to that, he was supposed to be terrifying. Hanging out in a cornfield is no where near as frightening as bitting Bill's face off.
And Ginny? Not attractive.
But you're right, it was a really long book to condense, but on the whole I think they did a good job on getting the main points across and still being entertaining.
Well as for the space program, I'm not so sure what Jake said is entirely true about saving the human race. It is true that the Earth will one day be destroyed by the sun. But what's to say we'll even be around then? That's still about 4.5 billion years off. We won't even be here at that time if we can't fix the problems we have now. Let's first find a way to survive on Earth before we try to find ways to survive in space. Having said all that, I do think the space program is really interesting and I wouldn't mind seeing a human walk on Mars.
As for the politicians issue, I'm kind of divided. I believe that a politicians personal life is just that-- personal. However, if an affair does come to the public's attention, I want him to be honest about it and not lie to the public. And I would by no means vote for someone who has had any type of affair (or any big scandal, such as money laundering or what have you).
I've seen the new Harry Potter movie. It was better than the other ones, I guess. That's not saying much though, because I haven't liked any HP movie so far, including the new one. I suppose they are somewhat entertaining, but I think they'd be much more entertaining for someone who hasn't read the book. For the 85% of us who see the movie and HAVE read the book, it's just 2.5 hours of that's-not-what-happened-in-the-book. Which gets rather annoying.
And yes, there was a big fight at the end of the book. No, it wasn't in the movie, but then again there was a lot not in the movie.
Eric, I'm glad you agree with me, Ginny wasn't nearly as hot as she is in the book.
Space is cool...however, i don't see a great importance of a man walking on mars, on my, and all other taxpayer's money. I'm really sick of people deciding that space should be explored. We still have yet to solve mysteries of our earth that could immediately affect lives for the better. Where's yo head at beyotch? Do what we can here, so we can continue to live and explore later.
Politicians should be allowed to live their personal and sexual life as they wish, as long as it is not making a negative impact on their decisions in office.
Harry Potter was pretty good. Hermione's getting a nice ass.....
http://www.bltchemistry.com/wp-content/hermione_alcohol.jpeg
ginny not that hot
emma watson- smoking hot
I laughed when I heard they'd recorded over the tapes. I just found it funnier than anything else, than it proof of a conspiracy. But as for our current space program. . .I think we should care, but that our focus needs to be relative. There are things more important than reigniting the space race (some are suggesting that we need one with China to get anything done) we proved we could get to the moon, but a lot of good that did. I could understand going back to the moon if it was a launching pad to, say, Mars, but as I understand it, that's not what it's going to be (and rightfully so), so I see no real practical reason for going back to the moon. If you want to make the space program relevant again, shoot for Mars.
As for the money. . .I don't know. I don't like half of what's going on with our money situation. To put a man on the moon by 2020, NASA's said it'd need $100B, which has a lot of people putting down their foots. Which amuses me, because we sank over seven times that within the past six months. I say go ahead and invest it in the space program, namely because I don't think we should be spending as much as we are now, where we are. If we have to spend it, let's go to Mars! Or just don't spend it at all.
I'm of the personal and completely irrational opinion that all those women are Democrats out to hurt the Republican figureheads. Of course, this makes no sense, but don't bother me with your facts. While a personal life is indeed personal, like Kevin, my trust would be severely diminished, and my likelihood to vote for them would be near zero. Unless they were Ayn Rand. Then that's ok.
As somebody who's seen Harry Potter but can't remember crap about the book, it's certainly better than the first five (but that's not hard). The actors are finally maturing a bit (though I only see Malfoy (whoever plays him) and Emma Watson really having much of an acting career beyond Harry Potter, though Radcliffe will just because he got the nod as Potter), and it stood as a much more convincing story than the old ones. They left out a lot, I'm sure, but the final battle is all that really stood out to me as missing. That's all I really remembered. It won't be winning any academy awards, but it's better than the others. . .and I still blame Rowling for writing the books insanely long for no real good reason. And yes, everybody knows that Emma Watson turned out to be hot, and no, Ginny isn't as hot as she should be, but she's really not bad herself.
It would be pretty cool to see a man on Mars, but that would be a huge amount of money, and at least until we get past this recession I don't think we should invest that much. Just making missions to the space station safer and more affordable would be a good start. They could start by taking some of our vast military budget and moving it to the space program, instead of having useless expensive weapons systems on earth, we could have them in space!
As for the politicians, I agree that it is bad that they would lie, but really no politician is going to willingly admit having an affair unless he's caught. (rofl at Colin's theory) Also, the type of affair I think makes a difference, for example, both are bad in their own way, but compare Governor Sanford's affair to Mark Foley's. (funny link >)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfwwdWinNSw
I did see the Harry Potter movie, I didn't really like it, but it was better made and better acted than the last one. I think it stayed pretty close to the book, in tone at least, but it wasn't very dark. (not counting low lighting and everything being painted grey) I'd have liked it if they focused more on the mystery or action elements, and less on the romance and comedy. Parts were funny, but as for the plot, I can see how not being familiar with the books would help. Voldermort's followers just killed Harry's godfather and now they're out to kill everyone else, Harry really shouldn't be focused on picking up girls and cracking jokes.
John, you make good points. The space station is a good step, except we'll abandon that before long, and it's relatively close to the earth. We need to go further to show that, hey, we're Americans. Nature doesn't apply to us. Also, we should militarize space with this:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hpCqDijPeZ5a4Nc_cBK8K1IJfk2Q
Because nothing says screw you to nature like making your own sun! And then we can build a space elevator, for the North Koreans or Russians or somebody to blow up, then we can cause a big fuss of it, even though we all knew it was coming. Sound good?
Screw it. Hire Lucas and build the Death Star.
Well, no. There's no real political benefit to admitting to being in an affair (although, it is with a Democrat, as I've reasoned, so. . .). Well, I guess it depends on your constituents. Some might just wink and nudge you with their elbow.
I agree that there should've been more focused on the actually meat of the plot, but that never sells as well. Plus, I mean, would you really shove a weeping Emma Watson off you?
We've been floating around the Earth for 30 years now, its time for something new. First the moon, then mars. I personally can't wait for mars.
There were really only 2 major problems with the plot in the movie that I noticed. From what I could tell Harry and Ginny never really had a relationship, they just had a little fling thing. So Harry never got the chance to break up with her (how gay does this whole paragraph sound, talking about relationships and shit). It seems to me though, that in the 7th book he makes a lot of decisions (some subconciously probably) based on his love for Ginny. Even more major than this, however, is that in order to find the diadem in the 7th book he has to see it in the room of requirement when he hides the potions book, but Ginny hides it in the movie. He never sees the diadem, so how the hell is he gonna know its there in the next movie?
Also, no homo to this paragraph- despite Dr. Marc Lamont Hill: http://www.bvbuzz.com/2009/07/20/marc-lamont-hill-no-homo/
Screw the moon. Been there, done that; there's nothing there for us. Mars or bust.
Also, it seemed to me Ginny and Harry did have a relationship, if it wasn't quite flushed out as much as it could've been. The director, I thought, did a good job of more showing the relationships than just telling us they exist. Also, I don't remember anything about a diadem, so that was ok by me~
However, I don't get how talking about relationships is gay. It may not be the things guys normally discuss or what have you, but I would hardly call it gay. I mean. . .going to be a hermit or something?
Well the diadem is extremely important to the 7th book (I just finished rereading it yesterday). Harry breaking up with Ginny is also fairly important to his decisions in the 7th book and he didn't dump her in the movie.
Relationships aren't gay. It just felt like I was talking about a chick flick or something.
Well, I don't remember either part. And like you said, they never concreted a relationship (as in bf/gf) in the 6th movie, so maybe there wasn't much to break off.
And still don't remember the diadem. Haha.
(Well, hell, you couldn't talk about the Notebook!?)
The movie/book was sort of a chick flick, simply because it was mostly concerned with relationships and all the drama involved in them, hence my dislike for the film. The whole relationship thing wasn't that vital to the plot, Ginny for example is really a minor character, she's got nothing to do with the main plot in the 6th and she is hardly even in the 7th book. The trouble with this one is that if they spend too much time on the relationship, it distracts from the main plot, too little and the relationship seems rushed and unconvincing.
And setting up for the plot of the 7th one isn't that important either, the whole thing was just a series of dei ex machina anyway. As long as they include enough action scenes, it'll be watchable, at least on the level of most comic book movies.
emma watson is hot
Very manly comment, I agree.
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