Big Brother says: Get a Swine Flu Vaccine or Else!

A week or so ago a relative of mine told me that her employer informed all personnel that they would be required to get the H1N1 vaccine or they would be fired. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, this sounded to me to be something directly from a dystopian science fiction novel and now I just finished reading more incredible news about forced vaccinations at Dr. Castro's blog.
Why should we be forced to make a decision between earning a living and our right to make our own decision about what enters our body? Vaccines take years to test and the H1N1 vaccine has been rushed in only a matter of months. I would choose NOT to have this vaccine because of the lack of long term study that would determine if there are harmful side-effects from the adjuvants or other ingredients used in this vaccine.
As I have begun to read articles about this vaccine, I see the term "Orwellian" pop up a lot. I feel that George Orwell in his science fiction novel, "1984" knew exactly what he was writing about and I feel that the USA has just about completed the triangle described in his book known as The Party and there being the inner party, the outer party, and the proles( or as we are more commonly known as the working stiffs that pay taxes and try to live a decent life!).
Also a phrase from the book that rings a bell loud and clear to me is this one:
"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength."
I am going to include a clip of the movie based on the novel 1984. I have not seen the movie I have only read the novel so I hope it contains the very dark message the novel has and that is our rights to choose can be taken away from us very easily.

5G Warfare

I have come across the term 5G Warfare a lot in recent weeks and found the topic thought provoking. 5th Generation Warfare was discussed by Umair Haque in his blog , describing how someone would engage in this style of battle and he lists 10 rules that would accomplish the mission. You can read the rules on his blog but I would like to comment on this idea of information warfare. It is true that we are bombarded with a lot of information these days; it is everywhere you turn: the radio, the television, texting, and the internet. There is so much information floating out there and especially on the internet, that in order for it to be useful to you as an individual, you must apply critical thinking skills to decide which information is valid. For example, I live in Mexico and it was not so long ago that all these "news" stories were being told about the "war on drugs" in Mexico. I do not think I have read so many lies and so many false reports on the television news in my life. Since I live precisely where they were "reporting" about, I knew the majority of the reports were out and out lies. For example, I read online and saw on tv that the citizens of Mexico would step out of their houses each morning only to find headless bodies in the gutter or a sack of chopped off heads on the curb or that gun battles happened right in front of everybody in populated areas. These were all shameless lies by the media and then parroted by whoever felt this type of story fit into their agenda. This has made me look at all types of reporting with extreme skepticism and I would rather get my information from eyewitness accounts or what I experience in my own life. Lately, there is a lot of "news" about how the economy is recovering even though people tell me their hours are being cut back or they are losing their jobs, I see for "For Rent" signs everywhere, and businesses that are open are practically empty. It feels like I am reading science fiction shorts when I look at some of the stuff that is put out as "information" these days, a lot of it is very creative!
The point is, with so much info out there, including this story about 5G Warfare, it is important to put to use our critical thinking skills and determine what is true and what is propaganda.

A Nighttime Launch for Space Shuttle Discovery

A rare nighttime launch for the Space Shuttle Discovery is planned for Tues. the 25th of Aug if the weather cooperates.

From the article:

Discovery and a crew of seven astronauts are due to lift off from a seaside pad here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 1:36 a.m. EDT (0536 GMT) and begin a 13-day construction flight to the International Space Station.

They plan to deliver a cargo pod packed with packed with about 15,200 pounds (6,894 kg) of new science equipment, fresh supplies and a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

Colbert tried to have NASA name a new room for the space station after him by urging fans to write his name in during an online poll by the space agency earlier this year. NASA, ultimately chose the name "Tranquility" - after the Apollo 11 moon landing site - for the room, but offered Colbert the treadmill as a consolation prize.

That is so funny that NASA decided to name the treadmill after comedian Stephen Colbert! It is also amazing, in fact, all the equipment the shuttle will be taking up to the space station and all the time it will take to unload everything and set it all up. It is not like they are landing on Deep Space Nine where there is artificial gravity or they have a special dolly that moves heavy objects automatically. The tasks the astronauts undertake is truly incredible and takes careful planning. I admire them so much.

You can go to Space.com to watch the launch this evening and read the article in full here.

I hope the shuttle gets to take off and all goes well for the astronauts!

UPDATE: The Shuttle will try to launch this Friday the 28th of August. I hope they can make it!

Bon Voyage!?

Image via Wikipedia

Often times in science fiction tales we are presented with a hero/heroine who leaves everything behind to take a fantastic journey into the unknown. They could be leaving behind a home, parents, friends, a significant other, pets, a way of life, all for the great adventure of exploring outer space. I pose this question to not only myself but to you as well: Could you leave everything you value in your life to go on a trip in which you may not ever return to Earth? I am not talking about moving to another part of the world because you still have contact with your former life. For example,I moved to another country, had to learn another language, a different culture, and converse with people who have a different perspective about the world than how I was raised. Despite all of that, I still walk on Earth, I can call relatives or friends from my hometown, go for the occasional visit or they visit me, etc.
What I am referring to is taking a risk like our favorite hero would do and leaving this life for the complete unknown, traveling with colleagues we really don't know that well and possibly end our lives in our quest for knowledge about the universe.
I think that is one aspect of science fiction I admire the most, that the main character is so willing to take great risks and face great challenge with tremendous bravery and intelligence for the sake of peaceful exploration in order to acquire more knowledge. In my own travels, I have gained a different kind of knowledge than I did from reading books. For example, I studied the pyramid in the Yucatan Peninsula called Chichen Itza in a classroom in the USA, and many years later much to my delight(mixed with fear of heights) I climbed the steps of that same pyramid! The experience enhanced my book knowledge 1000% so can you imagine traveling throughout the galaxy and how our experience and book knowledge will expand!? Well,I hope one day we humans can stop spending so much time, effort, and money fighting each other and our differences and begin instead using all of that in efforts to explore Earth and beyond.

Musings on The Future and Weight Loss!

So it is that time of the year once again when the Miss Universe pageant is held and I am still waiting for truly Universal contestants to enter and compete. I blogged about this a while back and it has always been one of my pet peeves that the pageant is called Universal when in reality it is not.
Anyways, the pageant served as a reminder to me that I am still trying to shed an additional 6 kilos so I have been riding my bike and spinning daily( I also have fun riding and enjoy the health benefits, but mainly it is good ol' fashioned fun). A friend made me chuckle the other day by stating that I could eliminate all that hard work by simply moving to another planet that has less gravity! What a great idea! In the future, we could all move around to a different galaxy or planet to achieve the look we are striving for of simply adjust the artificial gravity on the spacecraft to instantly lose those pesky pounds. That almost sounds like those infomercials that promise you will lose 10 pounds in one week if you drink the swill they are peddling. I wonder if that is the nature of human beings even in the future to look for short cuts to problems instead of putting in the hard work required. Can you imagine the possibilities that will exist for con artists in the future? They will need to be up to date on the latest trends so they can try to get us to buy into whatever new contraption, clothing, electronic space age gadget they are selling. It could be possible that we will evolve emotionally enough to realize that hard work can be satisfying too, and that the process not just the outcome is very important to our own self worth. I enjoy the hour and forty-five minutes I spend pedaling and the outcome is also just as rewarding! I also enjoy seeing astronauts working out on the space station or the shuttle, I admire their dedication physically and mentally.
I hope one day that pageant will be Universal and we will have a gathering of beings who are admired for there hard work, natural beauty, and brains, that would really be a sight!

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Stargate Atlantis Season Four

I just finished watching Season Four of Stargate Atlantis on DVD, and once again I was very disappointed that the writers decided to bring back Dr. Beckett as a clone. First of all, how was Dr. Beckett cloned and in what time frame, that was not even explained to us? It could have been a lame explanation like a tank with special liquid or whatever. Yet, he was an adult with all of the original Dr.Beckett's knowledge and memories and skills as a medical doctor. The clone thought he was the original Dr. and had been taken prisoner and held captive for two years until he was finally rescued by the Atlantis team. How in the world did Dr. Beckett get cloned, develop into a baby,then be born, grow into a mature adult in such a short time, then get retrained as a doctor and have all the memories downloaded into his brain? Even if I decided to ignore the silly clone business, I feel bringing back Dr.Beckett at all took away from the episode entitled "Sunday" in which he died. I though that episode was very well done and very sad, it was one of the better episodes I had seen on Atlantis. So to bring Beckett back in such a cheap manner for me took the wind out of the sails on the "Sunday" episode.
Of course I still bought the Season on DVD and I enjoy watching and re-living the Atlantis experience again even though I have problems with some aspect of the series each season but then again I am a die hard fan. If you love the show it is worth having it on DVD.

Brannon Braga Talks about Star Trek:Enterprise

TrekToday.com has an interesting article about Brannon Braga discussing what a 5th season of Enterprise would have looked like as well as the controversial final episode of season 4.

From the article:
As reported by TrekMovie.com, a fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise would have included a return to the Mirror Universe. Four or five episodes would have been spread through the season as a "mini-series within a series."
Season Five would have been about tying the "origins of the Federation" and the "begin whispers of the Romulan War" together. The Romulans were to be the only major villains in the fifth season, but new minor villains within "mini-arcs" would have appeared at various points.

Well, in my opinion, the mirror universe worked best in the Original Series and did not work well in Deep Space Nine. Some of the mirror episodes were just ok in DS9 but not all that interesting. I really do not know what they could have done differently with Enterprise.
The origins of the Federation would have been very interesting and Season 4 was well done in terms of explaining some discrepancies such as the difference in the Klingon appearance and I felt they had found their writing groove so could have done a great job with that topic.

From the article:
Braga spoke about These Are The Voyages, the Star Trek: Enterprise finale that angered many Enterprise fans. "I will take full blame for that episode, for those that didn't like it," he said. "In retrospect, it was a very cool idea, that in the end was a mistake. The concept was to have Manny do a final two-part finale, but then have a final episode send a valentine to all of Star Trek over the last eighteen years. We just thought it would be a cool concept to show the Next Generation's crew looking back, though the holodeck, at Archer's crew. It is a high concept, but I am not sure it came together."

I hated the ending. It made it appear that the entire experience of the crew in the series Enterprise took place in a holodeck in TNG. I wish they had just left that episode out and I am glad that it was viewed as a bad idea.
If you want to read the article just look to the right of this blog and click on the news under Trek Today.

As a side note: It seems like a short time since this series ended(in 2005) and yet it seems so long ago. I have been hoping for a new television series especially since the most recent Star Trek Movie opened the door to an entire new direction for Star Trek, but with such problems in the economy I don't know if that will happen any time soon. The good thing is that the Star Trek series are so well written that they are fun to watch many times through and in addition, I have been enjoying the Star Trek novels such as The New Frontier series and specifically Dark Allies.

Do you fit a Stereotype?

While reading an interesting and insightful post at Mike Brotherton's blog that is entitled Geek Life, I began to recall my years as a mathematics teacher and realized whether consciously or not, I began to actually look the part of a math teacher. I not only had adopted a manner of dressing consistent with what you may expect from a teacher but acted as such which was brought to my attention one day by a well meaning high school student who looked at me with curiosity and said, "You REALLY love this stuff don't you?!" Stuff being Algebra and math in general. Thinking back to when I was in high school, sure enough, I could pick out the wild haired physics teacher who had so much energy you would have thought he was an electron, to the eccentric art teacher with the "colorful" outfits. My mother once told me she knew a group of teachers who used to go out every Friday night and drink and have dinner so years later when I was going out Friday nights with fellow teachers to drink and have dinner, I had to chuckle, but now I can see that I had completely become the role of the "teacher." It has been many years since I have taught, but it has taken as long to develop my own personal sense of style in terms of clothing and hair, for example no more white socks with black pants and black shoes, and while I still wear sensible shoes they are more stylish yet still comfortable because I still value comfort over high fashion. Some things I will not change.
In the past I have discussed how I feel actors get typecast, but upon further reflection, it just seems easier for people to place one another in certain roles and if it is unconscious or not, people tend to fall in those types and tend to dress,look, and behave accordingly. There are the athletic types, the models, the business men, teachers (as I have mentioned), lawyers( try to picture a busty blond in mini skirts as a serious trial lawyer! I am sure there may be some but then she would be out of the unspoken uniform for lawyers), physicists or any scientist for that matter( just look at the Big Bang Theory television series, while the characters are total nerds they are brilliant yet socially unable to function), and I am sure you could add to the list. Once we see someone, we try to categorize them and put them in a box so that we feel we can understand them better when what we are really doing is judging a book solely by its cover.
Science fiction fans are also many times labeled as nutty or weird or those crazy fans who dress up for Comic-Con or Trek conventions each year, when really there are all types of people who enjoy a good science fiction story.
To wrap up this post and bring it all to a point, it is much better to try to get to know who someone is on the inside instead of making a judgment based on what you see on the outside. Also you should ask yourself if you have put yourself into a specific type that is easily recognized by others?

Becker (1998 - 2004)

I usually write about something in the world of science fiction, science, or both related in some special way but today I decided to mention one of my favorite television shows called Becker. The only thing about this show remotely related to science fiction is the actress Terry Farrell who played one of my favorite characters in Star Trek: DS9 by the name of Dax. It is refreshing to see an actor not get typecast in science fiction shows as I discussed in a post a while back.
Getting back to Becker, it is a witty show about a medical doctor (played by Ted Danson) in the Bronx of New York who freely speaks his mind to anyone who will listen. Dr. Becker is jaded, gets angry at the stupidity that people can display on a day to day basis, hates organized religion, and does not even attempt to be politically correct in public or private, but at the same time has a good heart and usually really means what he says. I find the show extremely funny, clever, and familiar as if it could be a page from my life since I work in a medical clinic in a big city with a primarily ambulatory population that comes to the clinic without appointments, dealing with people on the street, and knowing your neighbors and all their quirks.
Finding a show with such good writing that is sincerely funny is rare these days but not impossible to find. I just got the first two seasons on DVD and what a relief because I had some old fuzzy VHS tapes on which I had been watching the show. If you can, it is so worth the time to watch this clever show.