WOOOT!

I gotta be honest when I first heard that students would be blogging for a school assignment, I was sceptical. Really when I first heard the word blog I was sceptical, I mean what kind of a word is blog anyway? But then, in that magical way the Internet takes over people's brainwaves, I came to love it! It might have been a requirement for school, but for me it was a chance to do so much more-voice my opinion, hear and respond to people's feedback, have a life!!! So when I was informed that blogging was no longer necessary I was devastated! But then I realized that it didn't matter, no one could stop me! In fact this new freeness is wonderful! Now I can blog about whatever I want! Music reviews, entertainment in general, here I come!!!! I am addicted to blogging and I will always be here, maybe not as often, heck maybe more, I don't know! The point is blogging is a different experience for different people, and while most of my seventh period classmates will never dare blog again (if they did in the first place!) I will be here, because if there's one thing this assignment taught me, it's that the world around us is much larger, and more cultured, than a single anthropology class! Even if no one else but me reads this thing, I'll still post because it's important to me! What can I say, I like to write! hahaha Yeah I'm a nerd and I'm PROUD of it! Sooooo........ the first thing I will do with my newly acquired freeness to blog is to tell EVERYONE to check out She Wants Revenge's song Out of Control! I don't care who you are, it's catchy! So I suppose this is all for now, but I'll be back really soon! The Killers new album Day & Age is coming out and I've spotted some odd articles I want to discuss! And as you all should already know I'll have something to say! =D

Later,

-Brittany

Planet Problem

Hello bloggers, or should I say lack there of, sorry. Here goes nothing, cause that's the likely response I'll receive:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081113/ap_on_sc/sci_new_planets

Okay so apparently Earth seems to have its first fuzzy photos of alien planets outside our solar system, images were captured by two teams of astronomers. Hooray Earth finally made some new friends! Anyway, the pictures show four likely planets that appear as specks of white, nearly indecipherable except to the most eagle-eyed experts. Yes of course, you know what else they could be? A couple specks of white! All of them are trillions of miles away — three of them orbiting the same star, and the fourth circling a different star.

None of the four giant gaseous planets are remotely habitable or remotely like Earth. But they raise the possibility of others that could be. One astronomer says "It's only a matter of time before we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike." Sure, and aliens are green with huge black eyes. I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm just saying we have been too egar to find other life forms and stable planets. I'm not sure if I'm ready or willing to believe in other creatures besides us, what if they're not exactly friendly? Haha, just saying.

Anyway, back to the article-one planet discovered by Hubble is one of the smallest exoplanets (meaning outside of our solar system) found yet. It's somewhere between the size of Neptune and three times bigger than Jupiter. And it may have a Saturn-like ring. It circles the star Fomalhaut, and is relatively close by — a mere 148 trillion miles away, practically a next-door neighbor by galactic standards (if only our neighbors were that far away!). The planet's temperature is around 260 degrees, but that's cool by comparison to the others! The planet is only about 200 million years old, a baby compared to the more than 4 billion-year-old planets in our solar system. Although, the picture looks fuzzy (remember it's just a dot) which could also be explained because the star it orbits is 100 million times brighter than its planet. Definitely can't live on that one, or any of them!

The team first spotted the trio of planets circling a star in 2007. The star is about 767 trillion miles away, but visible with binoculars. Yeah sure, a likely story. Hey mom I just spotted a planet 767 TRILLION miles away with these binoculars you bought for me from the dollar store! Keep in mind that in the first paragraph they said the planets were nearly indecipherable except to the almost eagle-eyed experts and now we can see them with binoculars! The star's called HR 8799 (also the latest Star Wars robot's name, haha j/k), and the three planets orbiting it are seven to 10 times larger than Jupiter. Oh goody, if they are planets what are we going to do with 4 giant gaseous blobs floating around in space? Is it really that special like some are saying? Some are saying "We've never been able to snap a picture. Now we have a picture." Well good, go home and put it in the scrapbook!!

I should also mention that in the past 13 years, scientists have discovered more than 300 planets outside our solar system, but they have done so indirectly, by measuring changes in gravity, speed or light around stars. Well if we've found 300+ planets why are we just now concerned, and why haven't we heard about these others, cause I don't know about you, but I had no idea! There are also still disputes about whether these are the first exoplanet photos. Others have made earlier claims, but those pictures haven't been confirmed as planets or universally accepted yet. And I don't accept these either just yet. I think we're going out on a limb here.

That is all. Earth is the only planet I'm concerned with and until someone has real proof, my mind is going to stay that way.

A Race of the Races

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=127396

Hi there!! Here's the address for this week^, and the topic is one you've probably guessed since it's a pretty big one- yep, the election!

So as we all know by now (if not seriously get out more!) last Tuesday Barack Obama was elected as our 44th president. However many people are seeing it more like this: "Americans last Tuesday turned an important page in their history when they elected by a wide margin, the first African-American to lead the world’s most powerful nation." This isn't a bad way to look at it, after all it's the truth and a victory to say the least, but I think it should be looked on by what he can bring to our country as a whole and not what colour his skin is. On many scores Barack Obama’s victory against his Republican party rival John McCain gives the world hope of peace and stability. He promises change, and I believe he will make it. But most are saying this election only shows the "much-touted American dream can indeed be lived to the full and that the colour bar that had stood in the way of America’s Blacks could after all be scaled." Don't get me wrong, this is amazing that finally the colour barrier has not only been crossed but broken, and African Americans can finally get the respect they deserve. I'm just saying an election is about more than the "race".

In fact Obama's overwhelming victory, won him more White and Hispanic votes than Democratic candidate John Kerry did in 2004 (which I find hilarious!! Little Kerry, God bless his soul.) Many are saying this is significant simply because it is coming 45 years after Martin Luther King Junior's speech in which he expressed his confidence that one day every American will "stand or fall on his personal merit, and not based on the colour of his skin." Obama, by all reasonable accounts; ran a very good campaign, that was too often based solely on colour and not content. As hard as it may be, people need to get past the fact that Obama is black (although only half mind you!) and put more thought into his polices and promises. I support Obama, and have through the whole election process, but I never saw him or any of the candidates as black, white, man, or woman, simply people. When it gets down to running this country it's not about race, this is the "melting pot" for crying out loud!!! We should be used to race, and ready to focus on the real issues like the economy, health care, the environment, the war, and everything else that seems to be wrong with this country!

Geeze I could go on ranting for hours, but for the sake of everyone I will rap it up, so this is my blog for this week, take it or not but please don't get the idea that I'm racist because I am NOT! I love everyone, and I'm super excited about Obama winning!!! Hopefully his being an African-American won't be the only reason this election is historic, and he will really do this country some much needed good!

This is all. GO OBAMA!!!!! =D