that moment of jealousy when your manager from NASA says he watched The Martian movie before it's release
Totally relatable!
so what exactly is the Fiscal Cliff? I’m sure you seen the phrase - Fiscal Cliff - dominating the radio, TV, internet, etc. for the past month and days to come. Pundits (politicians) and economists at Harvard turned their attention to the dire predictions of the possible and theoretically outcome of “the fiscal cliff.” Overall, at its core, this event could leave a deep impact and dominate our lives for the foreseeable future. Think of it as the economic version of Hurricane Sandy that swarmed the Wall Street (the Northeast) few weeks ago. It all begins with the December 31, 2012 expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Originally, these tax cuts were schedules to end back in 2010; however, they were extended for two years in a horse trade between President Obama and the GOP (Republican Party) controlled Congress. If you can recall the 2010 election victory, wherein President Obama agreed to continue tax cuts for all Americans in an exchange for Congress agreeing to extend the unemployment benefits for ones out of work. So, if the Bush tax cuts is just allowed to expire - it will raise taxes for most Americans. And another godawful news is that the temporary, Obama administration’s two percent tax cuts, is also scheduled to expire on December 31st. Nothing done, on January 1st, millions of Americans will be paying $2k to $3k additional dollars in taxes each year - leaving them with $3k less to spend (on our Capitalistic consumer driven economy). These cuts hit all areas of the federal budget, including the Medicare, the Education, the FEMA, and the Defense. When you add up the increased payment of taxes and the cuts in government spending, we are looking at taking somewhere around $800 billion out of the U.S. economy next year—producing the potential for devastating consequences. Now, Obama administration and the GOP have quite different thoughts on taxing the ones who earn more than $250,000 a year. The whole government is sort of polymorphic now. Although the media might make you feel cacophonous (or that this post is obfuscation) for the next week, the White House will soon release the economic road-map for the upcoming years.
“Give me a moment to redefine my girlish notions of romance.”
A Beautiful Mind
This is the Green building tonight, the tallest one in Cambridge, on MIT campus.
Photo via @peteymit: http://bit.ly/17CBIzX
After months debate, scientists around the world now agree that NASA's Voyager 1 has become the first man-made object to leave our solar system (iknowsomeofyoumaywonderwhythismatters). And it only!! took 36 years to make the 12 billion mile-long journey.
Voyager is now on its way to another star. At it's current speed of 100,000 miles per hour, it'll only take her 40,000 years.
Before you start to read this post, listen to this music as you read through.
My taste in music is “eclectic”*. I like all of the music I listen to, so obviously I have really good taste in music.
There is nothing quite so magical or moving as an powerful orchestral piece played by a full symphony orchestra. I have nothing against poppy music, nor do I have anything against wild bashing and screaming music (except that I mostly hate it), but if I were stuck in Antarctic for the rest of my life, I would die quickly of Hypothermia listen to epic soundtracks like:
“Imagine the Fire”, Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises
“The Promise”, Michael Nyman
“Extraction Point” , Hans Zimmer, Modern Warfare 2 (a video game with epic score?)
“Escape”, Craig Armstrong
London Philharmonic’s finest.
Or simply instrumental.
If you’re still listening to the music, I hope so, right? Imagine you’re sitting in that room, as a group of 50 people playing a song – using violins, bass drums, cellos, and a touch of piano – it precisely melds together into a beautiful, powerful, multifaceted sound… and it’s just magical as the conductor keeps the whole thing together..
As you might have seen in movies (like Harry Potter), a wand is portrayed as an instrument for magical occurrence. If you realize, a conductor’s baton (wand) also produces magical waves. I mean, with the flick of a wrist, a conductor can shape music like a painter with his paint brush. He can create striking thunders from the bass drums to the electrifying sharp pitch of the violins.
*I really do have a weird (wide spectrum) taste in music.
By the time I finished writing this, I realized that music is an expression, as it can only be played or heard (its really hard to ‘talk’ about music).
In a nutshell or two: I love aerospace. I'm an engineer, writer, a photographer, and a reader. And, of course, a blogger. I spent my high school years in New York City, managing to defy every urban bum new yorker stereotype (except for the "bum" part). My school life basically revolved around Aviation and Science Bowl. If you continue to read this, I can assure you three (3) things: (1) impeccable grammar (yea, ok) and spelling (thanks to auto spell check), (2) a total lack of entertainment (literally, everyone’s view of entertainment is different), (3) an alliteration of photos, and (4) so many listings. (and of course parentheses)
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