log 7b

I was taken back when all that the Katrina piece was only a photo, rather than the normal long passage that we have to read. Though they do say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess its like we read a thousand word passage. The first “hotspot” for me was found in the expressions in all the peoples faces. The look of despair on their faces, I cannot imagine what they were seeing or what was happening to them. Perhaps they were being told by the soldiers that there was no more relief for them, or that everything they had was destroyed. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst national disasters that this nation has ever known, the devastation to the people affected is unimaginable, their lives will never be the same. All we can do is help them try to rebuild, but that takes more than just thinking about it to make a change, it takes money and effort on our part. The second part of the photo that stood out to me was the apparent chaos in the situation shown. It is impossible to predict when such a disaster will strike, which means when it does it is all the more terrible. The thought of losing everything is not a pleasant one, so people don't usually think about it. When you do lose everything, I imagine some people would go into denial, which only makes reality hit harder once it sets in. The chaos of trying to feed and shelter this large amount of people is a nightmare, and when you tell people that there simply isn't enough, that is when all hell breaks loose. People fighting each other for the basics of life we take for granted every day, the very definition of chaos cannot be shown in a better way.

The first hotspot on the second reading came when I realized that the terror that the people of Cambrai suffered was brought by another group of people, that is the Boche. I know that we still have problems like this in Africa today, but thinking about it is still disturbing. The thought of slaughtering a village of innocent people is unthinkable. It's a shame that there are people in the world who have to worry about whether or not they will survive the day, or have to wonder about whether or not they will eat tomorrow. I know we try to help these people but it seems that no matter what we do it doesn't do anything. I suppose that it is simply human nature to fight, but to take it so far as to level a village of innocent people is beyond that argument. Though as they said, seeing the Boche prisoners cleaning the mess they made brought justice, but how much will that really help in aiding the people who's lives were destroyed by the war. The answer is it wont help that much, but justice is important because it makes an example of everyone who would think of causing such pain on others.

The second hotspot for me was at the end when the motives of helping were being scrutinized by each other. This type of behavior only leads to more problem sown the road, and only hurts the people that need help. I don't see why all the different countries need to be so suspicious of each other, as they are all there for the same purpose. I really hope that we can learn to set aside our differences in the future, maybe then we can do even more to help these people in need. I don't see any possible ulterior motives for being in Africa, so the countries are only suspicious because of what they think of the other countries helping. People probably think America is only there for the resources it can get there, which is wrong. Until we can get rid of this suspicion, I fear that there is no way we can ever help Africa and maintain the aid we give them without them falling back.

7b

After reading “Katrina: Growing Despair”, I had two hotspots. My first one was on page 225. It said that the hurricane had done an estimated 81.2 billion dollars in damage. This was one of my hotspots because I obviously knew that the hurricane had done a lot of damage, but I never knew the number that they put to it. I can't even imagine how much 81.2 billion dollars is and I can't imagine how they will ever be able to get anything close to that amount back. Literally everything must have been destroyed. I've seen pictures, but it's definitely not the same thing as being there in person. It's good to know that there are celebrities and other people going over there frequently to help rebuild the city and put their own time and money into it the reconstruction. I wonder what the city looks like now and how fair it's come. It's definitely not the same but it has to be better than what it was. It's going to be a landmark for forever now.
My next hotspot was also on page 225. It said that the “head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency resigned amid accusations of poor leadership and mismanagement of resources.” This was my second hotspot because I remember hearing on the news that the federal government's reaction was poor and slow. I did not know that the person in charge actually resigned. You have to wonder why it took so long for the government to react. Of course there were probably other things going on, but something bigger than the loss of 2,000 lives in one city? That should be a big red flag and you would think help would be sent immediately. I guess we'll never know the reasons behind the lack of reaction to the hurricane, but just hope it never happens again if another catastrophe ever happens.

“The Devastation Is Terrible” had two hotpots that caught my attention. The first one was actually in the introduction on page 227. It said that “Ashe wanted to serve with the American Red Cross during World War 1, but she was rejected because of her age.” I haven't done my math so I'm not sure how old she was the time but it was a hotspot for me because of all the injuries and casualties that occurred during WW1, you would think they would take all the help they can get. Even if she is young, she could still help gather things and bring the real doctor's what they need. I don't know, I just thought it was strange that help was rejected in a time of need.
My second hotspot was on page 228. This is when it talks about a lady who was in charge of a hospital and 107 men took refuge in there. She kept them there for two weeks and let them escape one at a time. She disguised them as butchers, bakers and other things so they wouldn't get caught. She also burned their uniforms in a furnace. She eventually got very sick and was sent to a prison hospital where she walked for miles to try to get away. She was caught and returned to the hospital. This is a hotspot of mine because I could picture her as I was reading this, doing the things she did. I could picture her helping the men out and her running away from the prison hospital. I could picture her getting thinner and thinner like the book says. It's sad, really. A little old lady (I'm assuming) doing these things for other people and protecting people when it puts her life in danger. The ten accomplices she had also put their lives in danger for people they barely knew. I like how the lady said that “no one knows what freedom is who has not been deprived of it”. I like this because it's so true. We take our freedom for granted everyday without knowing, and we never will understand our freedom until it's stripped away from us.

Log 7a

After reading “Time To Think About Torture” by Jonathon Alter, I had two hotspots that caught my attention. The first one was on page 9. It talks about a “torture warrant”. This caught my attention because I had never heard of such a thing. It's weird that there would be a warrant that you could just just as easily as a search warrant. I do like how it goes on to say that a Harvard Law School professor said that “I'm not in favor of torture, but if you're going to have it, it should damn well have court approval”. I like this because if it is something we would have, I do agree that it should be something that the court should approve and it would make the whole situation easier, if it had to be done. I don't really understand what they would do with it though. Do they just catch whoever they're going after and just use a way of torture to get the information out of them? I could see how it could work and I could see how it couldn't. It does make me wonder how often a “torture warrant” would be used. Would it be used for the most extreme cases only? Or would it be used anytime officials want any kind of information at all?
My second hotspot was on page 9 also. This was where the paper quotes retired Col. Kenneth Allard. He says, “prisoners have only one objective-to end the pain.” This is a good point because when put under pressure, it's easy to lie. Especially when you just want to get out of the situation you're in. The prisoner's could easily just make everything up to avoid the torture. This is why I don't think it's a completely reliable technique. Officials could just be fed a bunch of BS and not get anything that they really need. At the same time though, we could just hope they are telling the truth. But hope isn't something that's solid enough to use in situations that deal with terrorists or murders. It's just not enough. Maybe we could give them a lie detector test as they spill out information. That might be effective.

In “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman” by Tadeusz Borowski, I had two hotspots. The first one was on page 158. This is when the people get excited about the transport coming. This is my hotspot because I think it's so sad that this many people have to get so excited about a train coming with clothes and food. If I was them, I would be just as excited to get those kind of things too because of the situation they're in. While reading, I just keep thinking that I would try to run if I was one of them even though I know that's not really an option because you'll more than likely die doing so. It's hard to think that the person with the most food has the most power. It's not even the best food. It's bread, onions and other things that you just have to throw together.
My other hotspot was on page 156. This was when it said “Sent all the way from Warsaw- only a week ago my mother held this white loaf in her hands.” This is a hotspot because it's weird that her parents know that she's in the spot she's in and the only thing they are doing is sending food. Of course that's nice of them but I would just think that they would be trying to do other things to get him back to his family. How do those people end up in those camps anyway? Are they just in the wrong place at the wrong time and get stuck there? As you read, you hear about the terrible conditions that they're all in and it kind of seems like they're just taking it. I know I'm not in their situation so I can't really judge what they are and aren't doing. I'm sure some of them tried to get away and it didn't work and that's why others haven't, because they've seen what could happen. It was just weird for me to read that the family knows where their son or daughter is and they only send food. Maybe that's all they can do though and they're trying the best the can at the moment. How do you deal with your child being in the Holocaust? That's just crazy.

log 7a

The first hotspot in “Time to Think About Torture” came when the author described forcing detainees to listen to rap as a form of torture. I'm not really a fan of rap, but I never thought that listening to in was a form of torture. I don't know if the author can be held as credible, as he seems like he is almost too eager to torture people. Granted, this essay was written soon after 9/11, so the author might have been angry when he wrote this paper. He goes on to describe how the country changed after the attack, and how torture became more widely acceptable in the United States. The next hotspot was the section about the truth serum. I always thought that truth serum was created by fiction and didn't really exist, so when I read this I was amazed to learn that such a substance actually exists. Although I soon learned that it didn't actually work, the fact that most people talk in response to torture cannot be disputed. I would imagine that it is difficult to determine what is true and what is false. There can be no sure fire methods to gain accurate information from people we are torturing, but the fastest way to gain any information at all is definitely torture. I would imagine that in the wake of 9/11, people were all to eager to approve torture and seek vengeance for what was done to us. The fact that we didn't catch these people ahead of time is unfortunate, because now we have to live in a paranoid world where getting on a plane is a giant security check, instead of how relatively easy it was back in the pre-9/11 days of this country.

The first hotspot in “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” was when I learned the meaning of the term “Canada”. I was puzzled by this at first, and even more so when I learned its meaning. The term is used to describe people who are part of a labor squad to unload the Jewish prisoners from the train cars to send them to either the chambers or to work. I am still unsure why the term “Canada” was used to describe this group, but I hope to learn more through discussion.

The second hotspot was when the Jewish woman ran from her child on page 166. I imagine that the woman was trying to save the child by running from he kid, but due to the child's cries for her, the guards threw the child in with her. I didn't really like this story, I found it hard to follow and kind of boring to be completely honest. I know that this is a sort of autobiography from the author, and the hardships that these people endured were unthinkable. I was interested also by the fact that the author wrote from the perspective as one of the non-Jewish worker, and said he didn't really care what happened to the Jews. This is a lot different from the common viewpoint we are given, that is from the view of a Jewish person. This doesn’t make what the Nazi's did any better, it only shows what they did from a different view. To be honest I would probably do the same thing if I was in the same situation, simply because I would want to survive. It's kind of funny to see what people will do or how they change in order to protect themselves, and I can honestly say that I am probably no different from the author in this regard, and would probably act the same in his situation.

hot spots 7a

In the story This way for the gas, Ladies and gentlemen written by Borowski I could tell it was about the holocaust just from the title. It was a sad story about the holocaust and what was being seen, and how the jews and others were deceived until their death. “ It is hot, terribly hot. Our throats are dry,each word hurts. Anything for a sip of water”(165)! This was my first hot spot I found. I chose this because it gave me a really good visual. It made me really say when I read this and made me realize how lucky I am to not have to worry about this. Especially because I am jewish I am lucky to be born when I am. I think this helped me imagine what was going on I pictured someone working so hard and gasping for a breath who just needed water. This story made me sad when I read it, the holocaust is a horrible, horrible genocide.
On page 167 I found my second hot spot. “In the silence that settles over nature at this time of the day, the human cries seem to rise all the way to the sky.” I think this was interesting especially coming from someone who was narrating the story. When I picture something going on I would have picture someone screaming and yelling for help but when I read this it came calm. It was as if i could imagine him saying this. I think this is a sad analogy, people were being tortured so badly, but it was silence. I think it is interesting how the author speaks of silence and screaming in the same sentence yet, it just makes sense given the circumstance.
Its time to think about Torture Written by Jonathan Alter . This was all about just what the title talks about, thinking about torture. It is weird because although I have heard about all of these types of torture this story talks about I really have never thought about it at all. My first hot spot was found on page 8. “The world hasn’t changed as much as we have.” I chose this because it engaged me right away. I thought this was very interesting and true. We have changed throughout all the generations in many ways. Ways like, technology, self images, laws and even kinds of torture. I think this is a great quote, the world has basically stayed the but we have all changed and who knows whether it has been for the good or for the worse.
My second hot spot was found on page 9. “ I’m not in favor of torture, but if your going to have it, it should damn well have court approval”(Dershowitz). I thought this was almost funny in a way. Even if you took a torture case to court could it be approved? I think this is almost sick in a way that our nation has changed so much someone would even think of bringing a torture case to court. I think it is interesting how he says he is not in favor or torture. I think this because how many people are, i hope not a lot. I think this was a good insert to the story it really got my attention and made me think all about torture and how it comes about, and how much our nation really has changed as a whole. I think it is interesting how he knows so much about torture and how I have known about this much too but I have never once really thought about it. It does not really shock me when I hear about things going on in the world which is sad. You hear about so many things in the news and in the media that the do not even shock you any more. This is when I think everyone should know changes need to be made.

log 5B

I read “It’s a Girl!” in the Apocalypse and I found two hot spots. The first host spot I found is located on page 363. It reads “Many Chinese couples opt for an abortion of a female fetus if they lose the natural- reproduction lottery by not conceiving a boy notes ethicist R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.” I chose this as a hot spot because I was appalled when I read this sentence. I know that in China, a while ago, if a couple conceived a girl, they became very upset and would somehow try to get rid of their child. Couples sometimes were so dead set on having a baby boy that they would sometimes steal other peoples’ children in order to have a son. They would kidnap him when he was young and raise them as their own. I was not aware that this kind of thing was still going on in China. I thought that it was old news. After reading this essay, I assume that the Chinese still favor having a boy over a girl. I do not understand this tradition. It seems cruel to me. A child is a child. Just because it is a girl should not make a difference. If you are unable to conceive a baby with the sex that you prefer, does not mean you should abort the pregnancy. I believe this for no matter what sex it is, whether it is a boy or a girl.
The second hot spot that I found in “It’s a Girl!” is located on page 364. It reads “Sex ratios and sexism aside, some ethicists worry about a culture where parents are driven to pick out and of the traits of their unborn children.” I chose this as one of my hot spots because whenever I hear about this type of thing, I wonder about people wanting to create the “perfect baby.” If or when doctors discover a way to genetically alter the genes of a human being, I believe that it could be beneficial, but also dangerous. It would be life-changing if there was a way to be sure that your child was going to be a healthy baby, and not have any fetal diseases or deformities. I believe that if a couple decided to use the doctors for this reason, it would be acceptable. But once they go a little bit further and chose to decide what hair color the baby has, I think they have gone too far. A baby should be a creation of the mother and fathers genes, it should be natural.
I read “Why We Should Go To Mars,” and I found two hot spots. My first hot spot is located on page 390. It reads “It appears now that life can exist anywhere there is water and some minerals.” The author says this in order to make us believe that it is possible that life could exist on Mars. I did not know that this was the case. I believe it, but I think that the author is just trying to convince us to go to Mars. I am confused as to why this would even be in the Apocalypse book. It is not like it is even written that well. It does not make much sense; it is just talking about why we should go to Mars. I am sure that many people believe that we should go, but I do not understand why this essay made it into the book.

Alayna 5B

After reading “It's A Girl!” by Kathleen Fackelmann, I had two hotspots. The first one was on page 361. It says “Some parents-to-be hope for a girl. Some wish for a boy. The outcome, however, has always been pretty much a matter of chance.” This is the first thing it says one the first page, and it wasn't my hotspot until I read the section and knew what it was about. This is my hotspot because I think this is the way it should be and stay. I think that it's ridiculous that there are couples out there who can't have a child and would do anything to have one, and at the same time, there are people out there who can have children so easily that they've gotten to the point that they want to pick what they will give birth to. I think it's sad. I also think it's sad because, although I don't have a child myself, one of my best friends does and one of the most exciting parts about her nine months being pregnant, was the day she figured out if it was a boy or a girl. I don't think people should give that up. There are a few special times when you're having a baby that make the nine months special and maybe go by quicker and I would imagine that that day is one of them.
My second hotspot was on page 364. It says “Rothman, for example, worries about parents who choose a sex because they are seeking to fulfill stereotypical, perhaps unrealistic roles.” This was my second hotspot because I agree with Rothman. I think that the only reason a family would pick the gender of their child is because they are being stereotypical. I think couples choose the gender because there are certain things they want to do with their son or daughter, and to their surprise, it may not always turn out like that. Like the book says, you might pick a girl because you want to pick out prom dresses and take her to get her nails done. What if she doesn't like dresses? What if she'd rather play in dirt every day and wear old jeans? I don't think you should pick a gender based on what you want to do, I think you should be lucky you can even have a child and take your child for what it is and who they are.

While reading “Why We Should Go To Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson, I came across two hotspots. The first one was on page 390. This was where it said that “one of the most powerful scientific methods for understanding something is to compare it with other things like it, and there aren't many options when you look around for other planets to compare with Earth.” This was one of my hotspots because before reading this, I hadn't put much thought into going to Mars and I was kind of leaning towards no.. not for any good reason. After reading this, it kind of sold me. I think this is a great reason to go to Mars and I like the way it was said. I think I agree because I can relate. In science classes, you compare things to one another to help you get a better understanding and this would just be one really big science experiment. This would help us learn more about Earth and look into new life elsewhere. It's kind of a win-win situation.
My second hotspot was on page 390. It says “Some will say we can send robots to make these investigations.” I think this is a bad idea. Maybe not bad, but surely not thorough. Robots can do a lot, but I don't think we'll be able to dig as deep as we'd like at Mars. I also think it would be more of an experience for the astronauts who get to go up and come back with a story. Robots are great for technical things, but I feel as though it would be more of an accomplishment for the U.S to send people there and walk like they did on the moon, we take pride in that and we could take pride in this. I just think there could be so much more we could gather with a human body up there. At the same time though, I wonder if it would be more expensive for a robot or human? And if we only send two robots compared to six humans, how much would that cost? That's basically the only reason I have doubts about going to Mars, because of the price. I feel like our economy is in such a hell hole right now, that we would have to wait awhile and choose the cheapest route when doing so.

Writing Log 5B Ellis Battista

Ellis Battista

Ms. Graysmith

English 151 Writing Log 5B

27 April 2011

The first story I read was called “It’s A Girl” by Kathleen Fackelmann. The story mainly talks about having scientist help you get the desired gender of the baby that you want. Although it is not completely accurate yet, they have a pretty good rate at which the correct gender is born. The one problem is that they can only do this process accurately with on gender, they still cannot do it for males. The scientist seemed like they were doing a good job, but the author asked the question when will it be too far? There are already a lot of people who do not agree with this in the United States. The first hot spot I found was on page 364 and it said “Murray notes that scientists working on the human genome project soon will have methods of identifying disease-causing genes as well as the DNA that produces characteristics such as hair color, height, athletic ability, and perhaps some behaviors.” The reason why this is one of my hot spots is because this is a very controversial topic. I have pretty strong feelings about changing babies scientifically. On terms of gender, I feel like parents can be leaning toward one gender, but should never chose a gender just because they want one. The only reason I can see acceptable for a couple to predetermine their baby’s gender is if one of the parents have a disease or sickness that is most likely to pass down to a certain gender. I think that if an adult has a disease like that, they should be able to have scientists try to give them a baby that is the opposite gender of the one that would get the disease. I do not like the idea of scientists genetically altering sperm and egg in order to change physical features about the baby at all. Once again, if there is some sort of disease that could be prevented from this, then I think it would be okay, but other than that I feel like it is cheating. To me, altering a kid’s physical features is like an athlete taking steroids, it is cheating. Another thing I think about is that they have not even discovered how to do this yet, and have no idea if it is safe at all.

My second hot spot is on page 365 and says “Although lawmakers may never regulate sex-selection methods, Murray contends that genetic counselors should begin developing guidelines to steer couples away from the designer-baby concept. The reason why I like this is because I agree with it. I feel like some parents are hard on their kids, and when their kids do not have the athletic talent or intelligence, the parents are much more critical of them, and in some cases do not love them as much. What happens when a parents wants his or her kid to be better than they were, and they have scientists genetically alter the baby, and the kid is not what the parent thought it would be? In some cases, not all, I think that the parents would have potential to be so disappointed and even angry at the kid, and possibly not love the kid as much because of it. Another reason why I liked this is because abortion is a huge extremely controversial topic, and I feel like when the technology comes out to change traits of babies, it will be the same.

The second story I read was called “Why Should We Go to Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson. The story was short, and mainly about going to Mars because it will benefit our understanding about our world. The first hot spot I found was on page 390, and it says “we should go to Mars to search for life there.” I know it is kind of stupid but I have always been interested in aliens and life outside of Earth. I know that we will not find any life that is extremely developed or look like humans or anything, but I think that finding a life form, even if it is just something like small bacteria is excited. It is exciting because that proves that Mars is livable for at least some life. That makes me think that sometime in the future there really could be intelligent life on mars, but that is most likely just my imagination. My second hot spot is on the same page, and it says “the search for life would be difficult to do mechanically, and the truth is that humans are much better at field geology than robots.” The author is talking about sending humans instead of robots to mars. This would be good from a scientific standpoint because like the author said, they would get better research. Another reason it would be good is because humans could really explore the planet, instead of just getting pictures and small samples. Humans could recall of what happened while they were there and could give a lot more details. Another reason why I think it would be better for humans to go is because humans have never landed on Mars before. It would be a big accomplishment for us to successfully travel to Mars, and find life there for ourselves.

I feel like technological advancement is the best thing for us, and also the worst. It really depends on what kind of technology you are talking about and there are many shades of gray. Technology like facebook is one of those things that are very good and also very bad for us at the same time. Facebook is a great way for people to stay close with family and friends over long distances and is helpful in making new friends in new places. On the other hand it is bad because some people do all of their socializing on facebook, instead of being out in the real world doing it. Many people now are addicted to facebook, and they spend hours and hours a day wasting their life with virtual friendships. Life without facebook is not hard to imagine because just a few years ago I did not have one, the biggest thing for me was going from not having a cell phone to having a cell phone. To be honest, I love having my cell phone, but I really miss the days when I did not have it. I do not remember the last time I used a landline. I miss calling my friends on the phone and seeing what they wanted to do that day. I also miss hanging out with my friends and actually hanging out, instead of texting other people half the time. To me texting got way too popular, but I cannot argue because I text nearly all day every day. I do not think I can imagine what the world will be like in thirty years. I do not think anyone could. There are always so many technological advancements all the time that we have no idea what there will be. If you think about it, thirty years ago if you told people we would have little boxes the size of your palm that could get you any information on a completely virtual database they would call you crazy. Looking at it from that point I do not think that we can even guess what there will be in thirty years.

Writing Log 5B

It’s A Girl:
My first hotspot was “Sex ratios and sexism aside some ethicists worry about a culture where parents are driven to pick out any of the traits of their unborn children” This sentence really made me think about how offended I would feel if I found out my parents attempted to make me the way I am today. Not only would it make parents in this day and age look shallow, it would make people think that parents wouldn’t love their child if there was something that they didn’t plan.
 The second hotspot I chose was when they were talking about the experiment that had been done. Out of 119 women, 29 got pregnant using the sorted sperm. Out of those 29 women, 8 ended up with a miscarriage or surgery. It is impressive that they can pick the sex of their babies but there are also many complications that follow this

Why We Should Go To Mars: 
The first hotspot I found while reading Why We Should Go to Mars is “The notion that we should take on such a dangerous and expensive endeavor just so an elite remnant of Earthlings might survive if we destroy ourselves here on our our plant, for instance, is ludicrous.” I definitely agree with this. I feel that they should continue doing research from our planet until they know every possible outcome. 
The second hotspot I picked out of this selection was when they were talking about sending robots to make the investigations. They say that it would be almost impossible to find out if there is life on mars by using a robot.

Log 5B hotspots

The first hotspot in “It's a Girl” for me came when the author actually described the process they use to stack the odds of the baby's gender. The whole process seemed so unnatural, and I feel that doing such a thing is a crime against nature. I believe that couples should just let nature take its course, and their love for their child shouldn't be determined by the gender of the child. I don't really believe the technology will take in the United States though, the reason being that we have more equal rights here.

The second hotspot for me was when the described all the details that they could potentially manipulate with the child. They admit that there is no way that they can manipulate a baby other than it's gender for the time being, but what if they do develop the technology that allow these scientists to change the baby's IQ, looks, or even interests. I see this as the parents being selfish, as they are not allowing the child the chance to even be who he or she wants to be. I cant really seeing this becoming too popular in America, but in countries like China where having a male child is important to carry the name, I can see this technology being popular. This would have negative consequences though, as the increase of males over females would lead to a drastic population decline. I may not agree with this technology, but I still believe that people have the right to use it. People should be allowed to make their own decisions, and if they want to choose the gender of their child, then they should be allowed to do so.

The first hotspot for me in “Why We Should Go to Mars” was when the author claimed that going to Mars would help us better understand Earth. At first I found this difficult to comprehend, but as the author explained I learned that going to Mars would help a great deal. I've always been interested in space exploration, and when I was younger I always dreamed of being an astronaut. The idea that there could have been life on Mars really interests me, and to think that we could actually land people there to study the planet is mind-blowing. While it is safer to send robots to the planet, the cost of sending all these robots adds up, and there are also some things that a human just needs to be there to do.

The second aspect that blew my mind was the price. The fact that the price has dropped by 400 billion dollars over the past decade is amazing, and actually putting a man on Mars is finally within our grasp. 50 billion dollars is still quite a lot of money though, and NASA doesn't receive as wide of a budget as it used to. Actually landing on another planet would be the greatest achievement in human history, and would probably mark the first step into what we currently perceive as the future. This achievement would make us think about our accomplishments and set our sights higher for the future. The idea of actually colonizing Mars would seem a lot closer once we actually place people on it, and who knows where we would go from there.