What's up, NASA?

In my Reporting and Writing class today, we had a lab that asked us to write on 3 topics that should be reported on more.
My 3 topics were:
-24 hour news (and how it's completely unnecessary)
-Russian-American relations (remember when we hated you back in the cold war? well, we're cool now. Wait, except for that whole Georgia thing. Except, well, I don't know anymore)
-Nasa and Space Exploration

That last one gathered most of my interest, yet strangely enough, was the shortest paragraph of the three. Basically I said "When's the last time you heard about NASA? I bet a WHILE." Did you know that we just found out our Mars lander unit DIED on Nov. 2nd? As in, we can't communicate with it anymore? Yeah, well it HAPPENED. And no one cared. Except me. Because that means MARS PICTURES! And they found ice and minerals that show signs of water! And they gathered SAMPLES! And it was, according to some NASA website, the most successful mission on Mars YET. Thrilling. There's also a Mars ROVER, (which is drastically different from a LANDER, but I am really not sure how) that is encountering DUST STORMS. I really hope it makes it. Didja know that we're going into space soon with a SHUTTLE?! TONIGHT! At 7:55pm EST! Fingers crossed it looks something like what happened in that movie with Jodie Foster (Contact). Speaking of Contact, remember all those space movies? What happened to that trend? Red Planet? Apollo 13? Mission to Mars? So many movies destined to be repeated on TNT and USA for forever.

I also wrote in my paper how we should focus more on NASA because they come up with cool stuff, like cushy mattresses and space blankets that look like foil (super-futuristic). And CAT scanning machines and MRI machines and flash-frozen food (um, hello Ore-Ida taters!). So yeah, NASA is pretty big news.

Now, I think I will check NASA news daily just so I can be a super nerd. And because it's the closest I can get to the nerd-dom that I experienced when visiting the Fermi Lab for an AP Physics field trip senior year of high school.

I also have to say I got a kick out of hearing one of my classmates write about an under-reported story she found about a cat who was found after being missing for 13 years. At the end of her paragraph she said she wrote "I know this is not really news-worthy, but I had to write on it because it made me laugh out loud."



In other news, it looks like Batman left his grappling hook and wire hanging off of my classroom building. Or, at least that's what it looked/sounded like from the 14th story window.