Moon Landing, the Success of the 60s?

Did we indeed land men on the moon?  If you were to take a poll the general consensus would be that we were successful.  Yet, there are many conspiracy theorist who would say otherwise.  Here is my take on why we didn't actually make it.

If we did land on the Moon why are we lacking physical evidence.  Some people say seeing is believing, but I am less than convinced by the video footage.  Do we have a way of knowing that it wasn't filmed in a secret warehouse some place in a restricted area of Arizona?  There is also no conclusive data that can be used to prove much of anything about the moon.  As for the moon rocks,  with some doctoring I could make one from a rock I dug up in my backyard.

The United States had everything to gain or lose from the endeavors of the space race.  During the height of the Cold War, victory in the race to the moon proved a strong propaganda piece and cause for national unity.  The Soviet Union was the first to put both a satellite and man into space, but we somehow beat them to the moon.

Finally, if we did land on the moon why haven't we gone back.  After the Apollo missions the only space expeditions have been to the International Space Station and Mars.  Why would we have not landed on the non-Earth side of the moon by now.

It is common belief that we have put men on the moon in multiple trips, but there are many questions that surround not only the moon landings but space exploration as well.

Singer : Hearne The Animal Equation

Here are systems of equations for the view of Vicki Hearne and Peter Singer

Singer: Animal Rights = Animal Suffering

             Animal Suffering :is not less than: Human Suffering

Hearne: Animal Rights = Animal Happiness

              Animal Happiness :is not equal to:   -(Animal Suffering)

The only intersection of these equations on a coordinate grid is at animals should not suffer.

Emotional and Logical Reasoning: The Power of Imagery

In response to the npr clip on how the human brain goes about making decisions all I can say is, wow that's really neat.  Not many people think about how they think.  Just the concept of it seems confusing, but the studies that they explained on npr were clear.  The brain is utilitarian and logical in decision making unless there is vivid imagery.  The imagery sends the brain on a separate track of emotional decision making.  Instead of thinking logically about a situation your emotions decide for you.  In the examples that they explained I realized what they were saying was true for myself as well.

This gives scientific proof to the effectiveness of imagery.  Why let your audience think when you could essentially, make decisions for them with imagery?  It's barely short of mind control if you can use it affectively.  As I think about it, it makes more sense to me.  Human beings cannot be rational all the time.  Whether you try to block them out or not, emotions will always affect your though process.  If we were solely logical we would be without the iconic Darth Vader.  Anakin Skywalker wouldn't have let the anger and fear he experienced from his nightmares affect him.

As much as we might like to think we are in control of our though process, there is still much that changes in our minds subconsciously.   Before I go I'll leave you with an example, a test, some food for thought.  What is worse, forcing one in five to jump out of a hot air balloon that is too heavy and about to crash into a bluff, or shooting someone in the back who has four hostages at gunpoint?

The Writing Process

Writing is a difficult thing.  Writing about writing is even more difficult.  Either way, I'll take a crack at it and see what I come up with.

As I sit here and stare at my computer screen, I am faced with what I believe to be the hardest part of writing, simply starting.  Often when I write I know what topic I am supposed to or want to write on.  The difficulty comes in narrowing that general topic down into specific enough terms to write.  Take this example: I want to write about dogs.  There is my topic, but I cannot physically write all there is to know about dogs.  Maybe I want to focus on a certain breed of dog, my personal preferences in dogs, or a past experience that I associate with dogs or that directly involved one.  What works for me is to simply dumping all possible writing subjects onto the paper.  Usually by doing this, something in my mind will click, and I will get an idea to write on.  If after all that you are still drawing a blank, well,  that sucks, I don't have anything else that could help you.

At this point you have probably still not started writing the actual piece.  And even though you have narrowed down your topic it is still hard to put the first words on the page.  I have no advice for this but to force yourself to write something.  As long as it is related to your topic it's good.  Once you have a few sentences, or maybe even a few words, more will to come to you.  The foreboding of the blank page will leave you and the rest is just putting your ideas down.

The rest is fairly simple, or it sounds very simple.  The rest is revision.  Writing in any stage can be revised more, added to, subtracted from, or condensed.  Give your writing to others, have them read it, comment on it and give you suggestions.  This step can go on for however long or short a time that you want.  With some finishing touches you can call it complete, even though writing is never truly complete, you can say that you're done.

I am lacking in a witty way to end this post so, have fun writing!

MJ

First post on the new blog!