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Less Than a Week Remains Before NASA’s Biggest Rover Yet Lands on Mars

NASA’s newest Mars rover is less than a week away from its high-stakes landing on the surface of the Red Planet.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover is scheduled to touch down on Mars at 10:30 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (1:30 a.m. Aug. 6 EDT, 0530 GMT). The car-size robotic explorer is designed to investigate whether Mars is, or ever was, capable of hosting microbial life.

With six days to go until Curiosity arrives at the Red Planet, project managers are bracing themselves for what NASA calls the riskiest part of the mission: the rover’s harrowing descent through the Martian atmosphere to the ground.

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Part of my research for the essay will be mirroring the argument for same-sex marriage as was seen during the Civil Rights Movement. Many arguments against same-sex marriage were used by bigots and white supremacists during the 1960s and are just as foolish today as they were then. “If we let blacks and whites marry, people will marry their dogs next,” sounds an awful lot like “If we let the gays get married, people will want to marry their dogs,” doesn’t it?

I am looking for RELIABLE reference material for my honors admission and scholarship essay to FIU. The topic is an argument FOR same-sex marriage. I am looking for legal references to immigration law, adoption law, last will and testament law, hospital visitation, etc. Cultural examples including television shows displaying these are good as well. I will be using at least four episodes of Queer As Folk to reference the inequality faced, but examples on other shows are most welcome. The essay is due early in February but I want to get started on my research now. Any help is appreciated.

As someone who is not a fresh out of high school college student, it is hard sometimes to understand that we DO have value to these organizations.  At first I was reluctant to join anything.  I felt out of place.  After the first semester I had a high GPA and was invited to join two clubs as a result.  The Honor’s Committee does charity work and promotes academic achievement and community.  Phi Theta Kappa is similar but requires no extra classes and it is an international club that also promotes scholarships to deserving students.  I joined up and realized that a surprisingly large number of students are 25 or older.  some students are older than I am myself. 

This realization made me decide to reconsider my self-imposed isolation.  I began by spending some time with members of PTK and the HC.  I also attended a Club Rush event on campus and found our chapter Gay Straight Alliance.  As someone who identifies as pansexual (accepts and is attracted to all traditional genders as well as transgender and genderfluid people), I felt this might be a place for me to call home and find acceptance.  I was not only right, but I am now the vice-president of the club.

The GSA has helped to transform my mindset into one of leadership.  PTK and the HC helped me to arrive here as well.  I have organized a clothing drive to benefit a local charity through both GSA and PTK efforts.  The charity sells clothing and other items to provide free HIV testing to the public.  We have big plans for the year and by the winter term I will be the club president and have more responsibility than ever. 

These club experiences are unforgettable.  I have made friends and improved skills I consider valuable for my future career.  As older students we bring our life experience and can view the collective projects with this wisdom.  We also can gain new perspective with the younger students and their world views.  The important thing is to remember that there is still an age difference.  While I’ll enjoy lunch out with my club members, I would not try to go to a nightclub with the 21 year-olds.  I respect their lives and opinions, but I can’t bring myself up for that humiliation.  I know that at 32 it would be bad to go to the hottest clubs with these younger people.  This is their time.  But, this doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy their conversation, company, and learn from them in a school club situation.

Whatever your interests, your school has a club for it.  You can have a fulfilling experience with other students regardless of age barriers.  Just remember the differences while appreciating (genuinely) the time your all share.

Some changes have been made to the financial aid process this year that are affecting millions of students.  The main changes are designed to prevent fraud which had been a major problem for the honest average student.  Still this process is creating challenges even for the ones who are in the right.

My experience with this hiccup is far from pleasant.  I go to school full-time, though part-time over the summer, and as such I work a part-time job.  My grants, scholarships, and student loans are my life-blood.  They pay for vital things like my rent, telephone, internet, and food.  My job pays for toiletries and the occassional book.  I’m such a big spender.  ^_~ 

The change has caused a delay of an undetermined length to freeze my loan disbursment.  The delay has forced me to borrow money from my father to make ends meet.  My internet is now solely at school.  To make things even better, my cell got wet and with the warranty voided as a result, I cannot replace it until I receive said funds.

I spoke with financial aid a week ago and was promised my refund by last Friday.  When it dod not arrive I went to see them to inquire about the delay AND the new charges on my student account from the bookstore.  Apparently the bookstore has not received their money from this snaffu either.  It is very frustrating to me, but I know I’m not the only one. 

Please be open and honest on ALL documentation you submit to your school.  If you’re unsure about a document, meet with the appropriate person or department to verify it before turnign it in.  As it stands, I may not get my refund until the semester is over.  This is a terrible thing to live with, but at least I know the day it arrives into my account I can safely write my father a check for the amount he has helped me with during this time.

Ok, when I was in high school, turning in a paper was simple.  You either hand-wrote it in VERY neat handwriting, or typed it up IF you had a computer or typwriter.  (Yes, in the mid 90s not everyone had a home computer.)  Your teacher would read said paper and give you a grade hoping that you had not bought it from someone and thusly plagerized it.  Now they have plagerism software to detect potential violations.  You turn everything in online or typed AND online.  This brings up an interesting point with the grading of papers now.

When writing papers, be sure to have a CURRENT dictionary and thesaurus handy.  Over the years grammar rules, and even citations for quoting and paraphrasing, have been changed.  Today, for example, I was informed that the word myriad need not be followed by of. 

Example: The myriad of problems facing the American economy have no single solution.

This could also be written: The myriad problems facing the American economy have no single solution.

This was news to me, and so came as a shock when I saw my paper had been marked with the suggestion that I was using an improper, or archaic method to employ the word.  Personally, I can’t fathom dropping the of from the sentence.  To me it looks incomplete, wrong, and as though spoken by someone uneducated.  However in a society of text speak equating dollar signs on the best seller’s list, I suppose it’s only natural that our speech declines somewhat.  I know I make minor mistakes now and then, but it bothers me when mistakes become commonplace enough to be accepted. 

I’m a returning student.  This means life came up and I had to quit college to make sense of it all a few years ago.  Now at 32 I’m back.  I hope to share information about my experience with real people, and genuine friends I’ve met along the way.  I hope to share information I find about scholarships, living expenses made a little easier, and how to be involved without losing yourself in the “kid” crowd.