Space Exploration Proposal

Humanity has been exploring space for many years now.  It’s been a long time since the first man landed on the moon.  In fact, we know more about outer space than we know about the oceans on Earth.  The fact that we have such a large aircraft doing absolutely nothing is ridiculous.  They spent billions of dollars for something that is pretty much constituting as another satellite.  Although they are trying to build more rockets to explore further out into space, they should take advantage of what they already have.  Modify the ISS so that it will be able to navigate to different planets.  I propose that they try to take it to the newly discovered planet outside our solar system.  This planet is thought to support life because it is known to have water on it, which means that it can have oxygen.  It also is located closely enough to the sun to be able to support life.  If all of these things are true, why are we not trying to explore out there?   It is true that the ISS would need a lot of work for such a long trip and it would require a lot of fuel and time. However, it is currently taking up fuel and time of scientists for no reason.  They are currently doing nothing productive in the field of science on the ISS aircraft.  Their laboratories are not being used to their full potential.  If they would take it out of Earth’s low orbit and explore the places we need to know more about, the aircraft and the money used to make it would be put to much better use.

3rd essay Source credibility

The source that I am evaluating deals with the “American Dream” and what exactly constitutes this dream.  One of the websites I found that deals with this topic is http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/American_Dream.htm.  Just by looking at the URL I can already figure out where this information came from.  The ending “.org” tells me that it is a nonprofit organization.  The “.uk” also tells me it came from the United Kingdom.  By going to the website you learn that the author of this article is Matthew Warshauer, and it is part of American Studies Today Online, which is published by American Studies Resources Centre.  Doing a little bit of research tells me that Warshauer is a history professor at Central Connecticut State University and has a PhD in American Studies.  This gives him a lot of credibility to be writing about the topic of the “American Dream.”  Also, the site does an excellent job in citing its own sources, which are many.  The article was posted in 2002, which isn’t too recent but also not too old to be considered valid information.  The article is long and has many different sections to it.  It shows different sides to the argument and gives many examples of what they call “rags to riches” stories.  Overall I feel that this source is a good one to use.  It comes from an educational origin and is written by an intelligent professor who has completed many years of school dealing with American studies.

Essay #3 topic

I am choosing to write my definitional argument about Victorianism.  Which, by Wikipedia definition, is referred to as “the name given to the attitudes, art, and culture of the latter two-thirds of the 19th century, especially with reference to English-speaking peoples and the British Empire.”  I feel that this topic will be easy to write about because it has certain characteristics associated with Victorianism and how the people were supposed to act during that time.  The era that Queen Victoria reined was from 1837 to 1901.  Everything changed in the 20s when the flappers came along.  Some of the characteristics associated with Victorianism are prudery, bigotry, and hypocrisy. 

Depending on how easily I can find research to back up my topic, I may decide to change it to the Flappers.  They came along in the 1920s and changed everyone’s way of thinking.  These were pretty much the opposite of the Victorian people.  They drank, flaunted their bodies, smoked, danced, listened to jazz, and completely changed the way American women thought.  I also think this will be an easy topic to write about because there is so much information available about the “Roaring Twenties” and the flappers. 

Either one of these topics will be relatively easy to find information about.  I think that hardest part is going to be writing a new type of paper.  I have never done a definitional paper and it was very difficult for me to even think of these ideas.  The credibility of the sources I find will help me narrow down my choice to one.