"The Martian"

[Stewball]

LAUGHABLY HILARIOUS, you say? Well, NASA could definitely use more funding.

OMG, a walking, talking liberal cliché. Throw more money at it.

But as I've mentioned already, I think NASA does have important successes among it's political and physical failures, especially the Moon landings, the Shuttles, the Hubble Space Telescope, Voyager and New Horizons probes, and the Martian rovers as examples of the former; and of course it's most obvious failures being the Challenger and Columbia shuttles. But the most recent example combines both success and idiocy concerning the "catastrophe" on Mars. To its credit, they discovered the evidence of much more prevalent water on Mars, even flooding, than had been thought to have been there; while at the same time exploiting that information for the propagation of a politically generated crisis mentality. How could such a flood be characterized as a catastrophe (to who or what?), and dropping in the term "global warming" was just transparently, irrelevantly, demagogic? BTW, if you haven't heard, there's global warming on Pluto too; but I don't guess it matters that much now since Pluto is no longer a planet--even if it could use all the warming it could get out there.

[Suture Self]

Wait, who do you believe assassinated JFK?

One thing for sure, it wasn't the patsy, Oswald, who could have easily gone into hundreds of stores in Texas and bought a rifle anonymously, instead of ordering it conveniently for the record from a catalog and having it sent to his own house. It was the one who stood to gain the most from it, starting with not going to prison. Hint: The assassination was planned by the one who said, "I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years."

....50 years and counting.

welp

[Pickpocket]

LAUGHABLY HILARIOUS, you say? Well, NASA could definitely use more funding.

OMG, a walking, talking liberal cliché. Throw more money at it.

lol I know their 17.5 billion budget isn't enough. If only they had more. If only Africa had more money it wouldn't be a cesspool. When will these people learn that government funded anything is always a disaster? The ACA is just hemorrhaging money and just had 2 branches close

LAUGHABLY HILARIOUS, you say? Well, NASA could definitely use more funding. I think you're being totally hyperbolic, though. Recently NASA has accomplished some pretty amazing things. And in the not too distant future, they're going to put humans on mars. That's badass.

Also, I am a goddamn gravity well. If I post, they will come.

Why haven't you asked me for my number yet, Shogun?

The free market will always prevail over something like NASA. If we get to Mars it will be because some billionaire wants to do it, and at this stage it looks like Elon Musk. There's also asteroids with trillions of dollars of precious minerals on them. Once they figure out how to extract those resources the space program will advance quicker than anything NASA could ever hope to accomplish

[Suture Self]

The free market will always prevail over something like NASA. If we get to Mars it will be because some billionaire wants to do it, and at this stage it looks like Elon Musk. There's also asteroids with trillions of dollars of precious minerals on them. Once they figure out how to extract those resources the space program will advance quicker than anything NASA could ever hope to accomplish

Nah, NASA's going to Mars first.

They already have a plan, some of which is already underway. An act of god notwithstanding, it's gonna happen: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1 ... ns-on-Mars

Also, the European Space Agency recently sent a lander to an asteroid, btw. They didn't extract minerals for profit or anything, but it was badass. Here's some pictures, if you haven't already seen 'em: http://www.space.com/24266-rosetta-come ... s-esa.html

It'll be interesting to see the future of private spaceflight, definitely. But it's funny you mention Elon Musk, since he's a cool guy, and he's been given ~$5 billion in subsidies from the US government and is set to work in tandem with NASA (he already has a contract through SpaceX). Elon Musk isn't an entity in competition with or separate from NASA, so I'm not really sure what you're getting at.

[Pickpocket]

Nah, NASA's going to Mars first.

Based on what?

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1846 ... ad-of-nasa

They already have a plan, some of which is already underway. An act of god notwithstanding, it's gonna happen: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1 ... ns-on-Mars

That's not a plan. "NASA is still working out the details about the journey to Mars." This is just them saying what the public wants so dipshits like you think they are doing something and guys like me will hopefully not ask why they are getting 17.5 billion to "work out details."

Here's an example of a plan to go to Disney world to help you understand what a plan is:
1. Get a hotel room
2. Buy plane tickets
3. Rent a car
4. Have fun!

A bad plan would be "work out the details." Hopefully you now understand what a plan is

It'll be interesting to see the future of private spaceflight, definitely. But it's funny you mention Elon Musk, since he's a cool guy, and he's been given ~$5 billion in subsidies from the US government and is set to work in tandem with NASA (he already has a contract through SpaceX). Elon Musk isn't an entity in competition with or separate from NASA, so I'm not really sure what you're getting at.

I'm referring to this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZyyAxkqQc where he talks about winning the NASA contract and how transporting goods for them was vital for him to keep going with space exploration. He doesn't work in tandem with them, SpaceX is a contractor and can be fired for poor performance. And NASA is so incompetent that they have turned to him and Boeing to do work for them, despite getting 17.5 billion every year. No one worth a damn wants to work for the government because you are surrounded by the stupidest, most incompetent people on the planet and you have to go through countless layers of bureaucracy to get anything done. I mean have you never dealt with anyone at the post office? Have you ever been to a public school? Do you live in a bubble?

[Suture Self]

Ah, I didn't realize SpaceX was trying to get to Mars before NASA. It'll be cool to see who gets there first, although the third paragraph in that article makes some good points. Musk is being super ambitious and optimistic. Also, I'm not a dipshit that's just buying into propaganda, you butthead. You act like NASA is some fake organization that hasn't accomplished shit. You realize they just recently discovered water on Mars, right? lol

No one worth a damn wants to work for the government? Are you forgetting about the person we're talking about? The person who's received billions in subsidies from the government? The person whose company has a contract with NASA and collaborates with NASA all the time? The US government is helping Musk tremendously, and Musk is helping the government tremendously. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Likewise with the Boeing thing. NASA has been working with Boeing since the 50s, dude. You realize that corporations and the government work together all the time, right? It's not like NASA is on the brink of collapse and is so desperate that they have to seek out Musk to "save" them. If anything, NASA is the one that gave Musk his big break when it comes to space exploration! This is business as usual. NASA isn't an insular organization, it's always relied on outside help for a variety of things.

PS: I've been to public and private schools, both suck. I go to a public university now and like it very much, though I wish it were cheaper. Surprisingly, I have in fact been outside and, shockingly, I've had bad experiences with both private and government institutions!

[Pickpocket]

Also, I'm not a dipshit that's just buying into propaganda, you butthead. You act like NASA is some fake organization that hasn't accomplished shit. You realize they just recently discovered water on Mars, right? lol

Are you this stupid? Herschel theorized about water on Mars in the 18th century. How could he do that without NASA? How did Galileo accomplish anything without the mighty NASA? You're clueless

No one worth a damn wants to work for the government? Are you forgetting about the person we're talking about? The person who's received billions in subsidies from the government?

I don't think you understand the difference between subsidies and government contracts. SpaceX doesn't receive any subsidies, however Tesla and SolarCity do, but I'm not sure what that has to do with the topic at hand. Are you arguing that anyone who takes advantage of the governments retardism is now a government employee?

Likewise with the Boeing thing. NASA has been working with Boeing since the 50s, dude. You realize that corporations and the government work together all the time, right?

Thanks for making my point for me. NASA is so fucking clueless and despite receiving so much aid money they are still unable to attract the talent needed to complete their job. A company getting as much funding as they are and still subcontracting work is an embarrassment. If someone with an iota of talent was getting 17.5 billion a year to run NASA they would be talking about going to Saturn right now but when you take away competition, as you get with every government entity, you get lazy failures running the show who do not have to produce. Be honest with yourself...let's say you're not a complete moron and are one of the best in your field in the aerospace world. Who do you work for? NASA or SpaceX? In fact, SpaceX is well known for paying their employees poorly and yet still get better talent than NASA. I wonder why

PS: I've been to public and private schools, both suck.

They probably just need more money, right?

I go to a public university now

That explains everything about you

[Stewball]

Wait, who do you believe assassinated JFK?

One thing for sure, it wasn't the patsy, Oswald, who could have easily gone into hundreds of stores in Texas and bought a rifle anonymously, instead of ordering it conveniently for the record from a catalog and having it sent to his own house. It was the one who stood to gain the most from it, starting with not going to prison. Hint: The assassination was planned by the one who said, "I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years."

....50 years and counting.

welp

Yealp, not much more you could say, so, welput.

[Pickpocket]

Finally got around to seeing this.

Ridley Scott is the most harmless director ever so it's not surprising that he puts out the most vanilla movie of 2015. The plot moves along as expected with no hiccups or any deviation from the norm, except when it's convenient for the story. Most of these conveniences happen at the beginning when they are setting things up like not seeing that a storm was coming despite having satellite coverage and then just abandoning Damon on the planet and not even checking on if he was alive or not. Even if he was dead, there's no way they would just leave his body there. Also, they are not going to lift off during a storm so the whole movie is tainted by this bullshit premise that they set up in the first 5 minutes. And aren't storms on Mars nothing like ones on Earth? Why was this the setup for the entire movie? I get that it's essentially a man vs nature movie but to take such a liberty makes no sense. I also found the NASA office politics to be quite stupid and pointless. I mean I guarantee that the director of NASA has never once worried about what the public thinks about how much money they are spending.

The entire movie hinges on the performance of its lead and Matt Damon is a good enough actor to where you can watch him talk into a webcam and not want to shoot yourself, not many people could pull this off. It has some good moments but this movie should've been dark and haunting but it wasn't. People will look back on this and wonder why it was so loved. A solid 3/10

[AFlickering]

i co-sign the above. wasn't expecting the second coming of kubrick, but i at least hoped for a bit more emphasis on the science/process, and a greater sense of the protagonist's isolation. all i got was an assembly line sub-ron howard blockbuster with no personality or believable human interaction. the forced and obvious gallows-humor dialogue was exactly like that in 127 HOURS (if you can call that 'dialogue' haha), another shitty movie.