opinions
The inal frontier e c i ot
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Image: flickr.com
Berndt Hannweg
W
hen Mankind first walked on the moon thirty years ago, it was the culmination of decades of scientiic experimentation, millions (if not billions) of dollars, and not least of all, dozens of lives on both sides of the Berlin Wall. But, most importantly, it was the most important step any civilization in the universe could have taken. In the long run, say, a hundred billion years, a single planet is a very short-term investment. On that timescale, even whole stars like our buddy Sol are an ify prospect. So Apollo 11’s historic mission, rooted in political one-upmanship as it was, represented the second step in mankind’s quest for immortality. Now, thirty or so years later, the American government is discontinuing its space shuttle program, facing mounting costs and domestic debt issues. he onus of
human space travel now passes to the Russians, and hopefully onto a new generation of private companies who look set to expand space travel to sectors long-dreamed of by scienceiction writers and advertising executives everywhere. Not merely satellites, or the top 1% of the richest on Earth, but whole swathes of human beings now blasting into the cosmos. At least, hopefully.
If Mankind truly wishes to be immortal, we need to look beyond this fragile planet of ours Space travel has always been a notoriously expensive and timeconsuming afair. he United States, looking as it is ready to slide into a second economic downturn, can scarcely aford to spend billions maintaining the politically expedient International Space Station. As
such, space travel has always had its opponents, who question whether it is worth the amount of money we pour into it. Putting aside the wide-range of uses us we have for satellites nowadays, nowad the problems of space travel itself have had a number of beneicial beneic innovations. New plastics, conductors conduc and ceramics such as scratch-resistant scratch lenses, memoryfoam, cordless c tools and even insoles for shoes sho all had their birth in the laboratories laborat of scientists endlessly battling battlin against the twin problems of weight weig limitations and hardiness that space sp travel presents. Even Eve then, the end justiies the means. means If Mankind truly wishes to be immortal, immor we need to look beyond this fr fragile planet of ours, beyond even this th solar system, and turn our eyes to the stars. Literally. And to do this, w we need to conquer space. When Wh George Bush Senior proposed sending astronauts to Mars, the technology capable of doing so didn’t exist. It still doesn’t. Ironically, the problem is not adapting to the planet once we get there, or even the distance, but keeping the explorers alive and protected from the deadly solar radiation. And we’ve yet to achieve a practical way of doing so. But we will one day achieve it. So it is indeed sad to see the last of these shuttles, so ingrained in the human psyche, go the way of the V-5s and Gemini’s, but they leave the way clear for new and exciting strides, particularly coming out of the private sector and out of developing nations. Ater all, look at how technologically advanced the world has become since companies like Sony, Apple and Microsot came about. Look to the stars, because someday, probably in our greatgrandchildren’s years, there’ll be humans looking back.
The future of Global Media Ehrard Vermaak
I
n case you have been living under a rock, or cut of from the internet/ BlackBerry/iPhone you might have missed the latest media craze. If you did your Twitterlicious, YouTubular Face(book) is in for a bit of shocking change. Google+ will deinitely make head’s roll. Or that’s what people are saying anyway… Remember like a million years ago, when everyone had an oh-so trendy MySpace page? Any Tom, Dick or Sally could ind a place to vent and seek their iteen minutes of online fame. his little seedpod started to sprout into the forest that is social networking with sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube and Vimeo to name just a few sharing sites. So why would Google+ be so signiicant then? he basis really lies in the fact that Google+ takes all, or many of these features, and rolls them into in to one pretty package. his “leap” has basically let the two largest social sites with a bit of a predicament. Google+ works like Facebook, and even has the classic layout. Unlike Facebook though, it has the impressive “circles” feature that allows you most importantly to avoid your granny commenting
on what you did last weekend by separating friends into groups. Secondly this makes the users feel like they have control over their privacy once more.
Bottom line is Facebook and Twitter’s monopoly is running thin As far as Twitter is concerned, Google+ also allows you to add people to your circle, or follow them, without having them follow, or friend, you back. Stalkers rejoice! Bottom line is Facebook and Twitter’s monopoly is running thin. If I were Mark Zuckerberg, I would take a hint from Tom Anderson. Tom who? Tom Anderson is the founder,
or co-founder, of MySpace. He and his partner sold the company for a whopping $530 million back in 2005 when Facebook was starting to climb the social networking ladder. he buyer, Newscorp, sold it for a pitiful $35 million earlier this year. Eish! Inventing an improved social site is all ine, but the greatest drawback for me is having to redesign proile ater proile. Although I know there are apps out there that seamlessly merge the three “big” networks, you are still let at some level, with three proiles. I am also not too excited about leaving my precious memories behind in the form of painstakingly uploaded photos and carefully pondered status updates if Facebook does becomes a virtual graveyard. Whether Google+ overtakes Facebook is up to posterity to decide, but I think it is a logical step. A formidable armada of Google products including Gmail, Picasa, Calendar, Docs, Maps, Search, News, Youtube, Chrome Web Browser, Blogger, Translation, Android, and more stands at the ready to assist and join Google+ in the battle for the future of social networking. Over a billion people use these, so Google+ as a combination of Google products, is just the next logical step and possibly the future of the way we consume media.
9 The students who fell off the cliff
Kishan Chokkappan If you are reading this article I congratulate you on making past the UCT irst semester 2011. For irst year students, making it past the irst semester is most signiicant because the irst years take up most of the space on campus. his leads to heavy congestion on campus and Jammie shuttles and therefore the biggest student loss occurs with the irst years. his is not the true reason of large decrease in the number of irst year students but it is a reason that makes reasonable sagacity. Imagine getting a degree is like climbing a mountain and reaching the peak is you achieving your degree. Many students who start at the foot of the mountain (irst years) are given the shock of their lives and there are many who aren’t able to climb over the irst semester rock and so there is a loss of students. Some students discover that they don’t want to climb the mountain because it involves too much work and decide to leave. his again, leads to a loss of students. hen we have the students who really work hard and plan everything with the greatest of care but always seem to come to a dead end no matter how hard they try, which again results in a loss of students. As we ascend the mountain there are some students who discover that they don’t want to climb this commerce mountain and choose to climb engineering mountain instead.
Image: flickr.com
An important point to note is that as we ascend the mountain, the less amount of space that will be available and so the senior students battle each other mentally to gain the precious spot to continue to climb the mountain while the students who lose the mental battle are forced to wait a bit longer. Blood, sweat and tears are the some of the symptoms that a student can encounter when climbing this mountain. UCT loses students because of many reasons but students who return to the second semester exchange expressions of acknowledgement and respect, knowing that they have one semester less to acquiring their degree. I’m sure that many irst year students have been humbled by the irst semester and have come to the realisation that UCT is not just a place where you can go to have fun; academics just happens to be an important aspect of the university life. In the end though, everyone has a right to a tertiary education but that right does not necessarily mean that you automatically get the degree that you are aspiring for. Acquiring the degree that you desire is completely up to you as an individual. he students who fell of the clif will not be making a return in this second semester. However, for the students who have survived the irst semester and begin the second semester, remember, “Even at irst you do succeed, you still have to work hard to stay there” (Richard C Miller).
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