Posts tagged children
Interstellar “Too Much, Too Little”
Nov 19th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
INTERSTELLAR is the very epitome of a big movie: big production values, big cast, big story, big ideas, but in the end it just might have a small impact on the audience.
When the movie begins, it is the near future, and the Earth is in trouble, because cities have been abandoned, food production is practically the only industry, and yet blights have wiped out almost all of the crops, and dust storms cause life to be suspended while people are forced to take shelter inside.
Michael McConaughey stars as Cooper, a former pilot for NASA who is now a struggling farmer trying to provide a living for his family, which consists of his daughter Murphy, his son Tom, and his dead wife’s father, who is played by John Lithgow.
The reason Cooper is no longer a pilot for NASA is that science has been abandoned for being too expensive and unncecessary, NASA has gone underground, and children in school are being told that Americans never landed on the moon.
One day Cooper and Murphy stumble into a secret NASA compound, where they learn that NASA is still involved in space exploration, only now as a solution to the world’s problems by searching for a planet in another solar system where humanity can travel to live and survive.
The program is being led by Professor Brand, played by Michael Caine, and he tells Cooper, “We need a pilot, and this is the mission you were trained for.”
Professor Brand’s daughter, Amelia, played by Anne Hathaway, is also a scientist, and she will be accompanying Cooper on the mission, which consists of traveling to the planet Saturn, going through a wormhole that is known to exist there, and emerging at another solar system, where they are to find a planet that will be hospitable to humans.
But wait! The story gets even more preposterous.
A black hole is involved in the journey, and because time will be slowed down for Cooper and his crew, they will age much more slowly than the people on Earth.
Thus, Murphy grows up while Cooper is gone, she is now played by Jessica Chastain, and she also becomes a scientist working with Professor Brand.
INTERSTELLAR goes on way too long, it contains too much technobabble, and the loud sound covers up the dialogue.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Facebook good neighbor by funding financially strapped police annex.
Jul 15th
Meet Mary Ferguson, AKA the Facebook Cop, whose position was created through public-private partnership between tony Menlo Park and the social media giant.
Over the next three years, Facebook agreed to pay $600,000 to the town, where the company also happens to be headquartered.
Ferguson, 34, who’s paid $194,000 in salary and benefits per year for her services, keeps an eye on the internet behavior of potentially unruly kids by using an online persona that hides her true identity.
Ferguson’s primary duties apart from patrolling Facebook include keeping children in school, working with juvenile offenders, and helping large area businesses equip themselves for natural disasters, campus shootings or other violent crimes, reports the Wall Street Journal.
‘Mary is a pro-active police officer who enjoys working with kids,’ Commander Dave Bertini told NBC Bay Area in March, when the force first accepted the funds. ‘Her passion and enthusiasm for truancy abatement will drive the department’s program in a successful direction for the youth of Menlo Park.’
While many residents of the well-off tech town appear happy with the unusual corporate partnerships, some people see a conflict of interest.
Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller supports the partnership.
‘Facebook moved into a part of town that was blighted, that was hurting,’ Mueller told the WSJ. ‘One of the first things we’re seeing is this public safety net coming down to protect everyone.’
Mueller brushed off suggestions that the tech giant is acting solely out of self interest.
‘Anyone who has the perception that Facebook is trying to protect themselves really doesn’t understand the situation,’ he told the WSJ. ‘That place is a fortress—they don’t need the Menlo Park Police to protect them.’
Some experts have their doubts.
‘That raises some potential conflicts that, if I was the chief, I am not sure I’d want to wrestle with,’ University of South Carolina criminal justice professor Geoffrey Alpert told the WSJ.
Alpert said he worries about skewed loyalties. ‘What do you tell your officers about how to treat people who work at Facebook?’ he wondered.
For it’s part, Facebook has called the $600,000 donation a no-strings-attached gift.
‘We just identified a need in the community,’ Facebook spokesperson Genevieve Grdina told the WSJ. ‘It’s not the “Facebook officer”; it’s the officer for the whole community.’
by Menlo Park C1N staff
the Wall Street Journal and Guardian contributed to this story.
Who is Sky Guy
Jun 24th
After working in the software industry for almost twenty years, Mr. Vilot decided it was time to merge his two passions: astronomy and kids.
Being the quintessential “kid magnet,” Mr. Vilot has been volunteering at the Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, CO., in their K-12 outreach program.
Mr. Vilot studied acting for two years.
He launched SkyGuy.com, a series of short videos answering the many questions he has received from kids while volunteering at Fiske. The project is an abrupt change from his past, throwing himself into a completely new industry and learning all new tools. Once again, he is rapidly teaching himself. This time it is video, lighting, sound, editing and animation.