Iranian woman cosmonaut

Here is the story of Ansari, the Iranian born millionaire who became a cosmonaut and visited the International Space Station (ISS) after "donating" $20 million to Russia. She gives a beautiful message about tolerance and acceptance and peace:

In her native Iran, Ansari has become an inspiration to many women who chafe at the country’s male-dominated rule. Scores of women went to an observatory near Tehran last week to watch the space station streak across the sky at dawn.

In a blog about her space experiences, Ansari suggested that life aboard the crowded space station could be a model for reducing tensions among people and nations on the planet.

“It’s sort of like on Earth, if you think about it,” she wrote. “We are all connected to each other by living on the only habitable planet in the solar system; we have no place else to go, at least not for a while, so if we don’t get along and blow up everything and create a mess of our home, well guess what? We have to live with it.”

contractors in Iraq

In class we are discussing contractors and the iron triangle among congress, defense industry and the military - we discussed how much contractors get paid in Iraq - sometimes $3000 a day for security work. Someone said "Yeah if you live to collect it." Here is an attack on a convoy of contractors. Here's another near miss on a convoy.

Iraq improvised explosive device

Here is a link to a video made by a us soldier, in his humvee, and it gets hit by an IED. They are ok. the timing was off, the main blast missed the humvee. You might need to log in to You Tube to see it - I am not sure if you have to be over 18 or not to see it. You can search for others like it - some of the videos posted are made by terror groups, showing attacks, but some are filmed by us soldiers.

guardian angel - car crashes

here is a link to several movies about race cars crashing and narrowly missing spectators - they must have had a guardian angel watching over them! My son sent it to me email - you can also send it email to someone.

Little Richard is Pres. Bush's interpreter

Here is little richard interpreting bush's 911 speech, just like he does for the car insurance ad. really funny!

$146.50 for everything on McDonald's menu

Here is a clip of an Australian TV host ordering everything on a McDonald's menu, he starts with "a small coke, a medium coke, a large coke, a small diet coke..." He orders everything, and they ask him "do you want the meal?" and he says "what the hell, yeah."

Political Film Fall 2006

Here are the movies I am showing in political film, fall 2006. My favorites are Walk on Water, Clockers, Bon Voyage, Three Seasons and Everything is Illuminated. But they are all really great.



Postmodern Existential Politics
Dark Blue World
August 29

Postmodern Brooklyn
Clockers
Sept 5

Postmodern Israel
Walk on Water
Sept 12

Postmodern American Journey
Motorcycle Diaries
Sept 19

Postmodern Future (First Paper Due)
Blade Runner (Director’s Cut)
Sept 26

Postmodern Golan
Syrian Bride
Oct 3

Postmodern France (Mid Term Exam – Papers handed back)
Bon Voyage
Oct 10

Postmodern Japan
Hana – bi (Fireworks)
Oct 24

Postmodern Vietnam (Second paper due)
Three Seasons
Oct 31

Postmodern Germany
Der Untergang (The Downfall)
Nov 7

Postmodern Ukraine
Everything is Illuminated
Nov 14

Postmodern Palestine
Paradise Now
Nov 21

Postmodern South Africa
Tsotsi
Nov 28

Postmodern American Hero
Taxi Driver
Dec 5

Building a castle in France

Here is a guy building a castle in France, the hard way. He is building the castle with 13th century techniques. He is actually turning a profit on the castle, since it has become a big tourist location. I really admire this guy: I love old buildings and he has found a way of creating the past and making some money in the process.

Virtual New York City!

Here is a link to a site that provides you with maps, walking tours and videos of new york city. The walking tours are great - interactive photo tour. The videos are fun too - my favorite are of the subway rides, skating at Rockefeller place, and Jessica's bat mitzvah. Yes, Jessica filmed her mitzvah - it is so cute. There is so much on this site I only have seen a small portion. The picture shown is from the empire state building walking tour.

Afrobats - street performers in Central Park

Here is a link to the famous Afrobats, street performers in Central Park. amazing!

E = MC2 and WTC collapse

Why did the World Trade Towers seem to explode? Einstein's theory of energy and mass is above, e equals m csquared, or energy and mass can go either way. there is a finite amount of mass (and energy) in the universe. So when mass disintegrates it releases energy. How much mass does one tower of WTC contain? A scientist estimates that with a mass of about 500,000 tons (5 x 108 kilograms), a height of about 1,350 ft. (411 meters), and the acceleration of gravity at 9.8 meters per second 2, the potential energy is 1019 ergs (1012 Joules or 278 Megawatt-hours). "That's about 1 percent of the energy released by a small atomic bomb," the scientist noted.

The M.I.T. professor added that about 30 percent of the collapse energy was expended rupturing the materials of the building, while the rest was converted into the kinetic energy of the falling mass. The huge gray dust clouds that covered lower Manhattan after the collapse were probably formed when the concrete floors were pulverized in the fall and then jetted into the surrounding neighborhood. "Of the kinetic energy impacting the ground, only 0.1 percent was converted to seismic energy," he stated. "Each event created a (modest-sized) magnitude 2 earthquake, as monitored at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Observatory, which is located about 30 kilometers away from New York City." Kausel concluded that the "the largest share of the kinetic energy was converted to heat, material rupture and deformation of the ground below."

mass equals energy. the WTC became energy, and left over mass. That's why some believe in the conspiracy theories behind the WTC collapse: but its all about einsteins formula.