Guns and guns!

The supreme court is to make a decision about whether state and local gun control laws may be challenged under the Second Amendment. A decision last year said that people could hold weapons and laws could not interfere. The decision, District of Columbia v. Heller concerned only federal laws and struck down parts of the gun control law in the District of Columbia. The court ruled the law in the District of Columbia violated peoples 2nd amendmant rights to own personal firearms for self defense purposes. A new law in Chicago is being challenged along the same lines and many legal scholars are expecting the court to uphold the same second amendmant idea.
My only real feelings towards guns are that people should only be allowed pistols (with all the proper requirements etc.) and only hunters should be allowed to use single shot rifles. Nothing else should be sold for any purpose. But that's just me.

Lion of the Week

This weeks lion is one of the prime examples of what a lion should be. He is incredibly strong and courageous and his profile is the textbook definition of a true lion. Mufasa! He is the king of the Pridelands in the first Lion King movie and his strong personality shines through with his king-like demeanor yet childish exuberance.
His brother Scar has missed out on all the qualities, from power to looks, except for the brains. Mufasa is intelligent in his own right, but Scar manages to stay a step ahead and eventually manages to kill Mufasa in a horrible ambush. The scene of Mufasa's death is one of the best known scenes in all of Disney. He is this weeks lion because he represents the good in all of us and he shows us what a king trully looks like.

Bangladesh

I learned today of a new banking system that began in the rural towns of Bangladesh meant to help people and their entire communities out of poverty. Normal banks deal with millions of dollars on a daily basis and worry about the privileged 1/3 of the population with expendable cash. This banking system, known as the Grameen Bank, involves selling "micro loans" or small loans, the average going for about $85. The bank mostly gives loans out to women since they tend to focus more on the future while guys use fast cash for immediate pleasures. The women who get the loans will gather once a week to pay their dues and talk about their troubles. It's this gathering of women who decide whether the bank will sell a lone to someone by reviewing the payment plan and all the other good stuff. (all of this is overseen by a banker of course) This system of banking has proven to be very affective with a 99% of loans being payed off and 65% of communities involved in this system have been completely pulled out of poverty.

Quick Post

I'm doing this early in the morning for some reason, but anyways, I thought I would give a shout out to one of my idols: Hans Zimmer. He is one of the most amazing composers right now mostly composing soundtracks for great movies. Some of his best exploits include Batman the Dark Knight, Pirates, Black Hawk Down, The Lion King and Kung Fu Panda (you may laugh at Kung Fu Panda, but that is one seriously amazing soundtrack. I was blown away at how good it sounded). So, anyone who likes classical, who likes the oriental themed or who just likes good sounds, Hans Zimmer is the man to check out.

Halo ODST

This is the newest game in the seemingly never ending series of Halo games, and I mean that in the best of ways. Bungie takes players back to Halo 2 when the Covenant cruisers have found the Earth and all hell is quite literally breaking loose upon New Mombasa. You begin your game as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper jumping in to attack the hovering Covanent ship when it suddenly enters slipspace, sending a shockwave and EMP that blasts around and scatters the ODST drop pods. The next scene isn't until late at after dark. You finally gain consciousness and escape your crashed pod to find yourself alone in a city filled with Covanent forces. (Your average foe consists of Brutes, Grunts, Jackals and occasionally Hunters.) The rest of the game is spent finding clues to his squads battles during the day. I won't spoil what the squad does go through, but as you find each clue, you jump back in time to one of the characters and fight through Covanent hordes with anything from your new silenced submachine gun to a M808B (Scorpion) Tank.

The game is fairly fun to play with the solid targeting controls and great aiming mechanics we all know and love. One of the perks of not being Master Chief is a whole new stealth aspect. It's possible to go through the whole night level without firing a single bullet (*hint* achievement *hint*), although it's quite frankly a lot of fun to pick apart a squad of brutes and then sneak up and assassinate the only survivor (epic video moment!). The hard parts to adjust too are how weak some of the weapons feel versus how strong others have grown. The submachine gun can work well once you learn how to use it, but expect to be running out of ammo really fast seeing as how it can take nearly a full clip to down one brute. The pistol from the first Halo game has been resurrected with the same high power and zoom capabilities we've been missing (except don't expect the one shot hunter kill from before). The carbine was turned into an absolutely wicked gun. Aim for the head and no normal troop can stop you, plus lots of jackals like to carry them around so there's ammo aplenty.
As far as enemies go, the grunts are ridiculusly easy to kill (almost to a fault), and they are highly unintelligent in this game (except on firefight when it becomes grenades galore, they get decently tough). They mostly tend to meander gleefully into your spray of bullets, or they'll just give up and go suicidal. The brutes are stronger than expected but easy enough to defeat. They have much better intelligence in this game and will often set up quick ambushes and flanks. The jackals with shields are more a nuisance than anything else, it's the snipers you should be worried about, especially on the higher difficulties (can you say 'one shot pawnage'?). Jackals also seem to be annoyingly hard to kill, taking way more bullets than I thought they would. The hunters are the surprise for me. Normally it's easy enough to simply play a little torro with the bulls and gun them in the back, but not so much in this case. Remembering you are not Master Chief, the hunters can outrun you and in many cases I have been ambushed by the behemoths. They are annoyingly tough and very smart. They can anticipate your moves and in many cases they can outperform you. High difficulties get it especially fun considering they can score a one hit kill. Your biggest threat is definitely the brute chieftains. They do massive amounts of damage, they can easily outrun, or jump, you and there invincibility plus their natural strength makes them something to panic about.

There are few vehicles during the night levels unless you find a weapons cache which comes with a little something to ride through town on. During the flashbacks, though, you get your share of warthogs, tanks and even banshees. Your HUD has been completely revised with new abilities and information. You don't get the normal radar, but you do get an awesome mini-map feature you can pull up from your Visor. It shows general enemy locations allowing you to assess whether or night you want to run in Rambo style and pump their bodies full of lead, or avoid using the last of your ammo and just sneak around.

The firefight mode is one of the best defensive games out their. The idea is very similar to horde, simply survive the waves by holding a strong location. The spice comes from increasing enemy difficulty, of course, and the systematic inclusion of skulls!

ODST is a very well polished game with a fun single player and an even more fun Firefight addition, plus the game has a second CD containing all the Halo 3 multiplayer maps, including the downloads. Definately worth your time to check out, even if it's just a rental. Replay value is good for those with xbox live (but only decent for those without, the campaign is nice, but the best a replay can get is Legendary with a bunch of skulls turned on.)

Lion of the Week

OK, so I'm to jump into this for the sake of doing something so I've decided to start introducing various lions from films, books and other media. This weeks lion is...... Kovu! (no surprise to anyone from MLK who actually reads this) Kovu stars in The Lion King two as the adopted son of the popular antagonist, Scar. Kovu spent his life being brainwashed by his mother Zira, in order to kill Simba, forming a hard exterior and a rough demeanor in the process. In the end, he falls in Simba's daughter Kiara and he leaves his mother for the Pridelands. After a series of plot twists you see Kovu for what he trully is, a big softy who just needs some love. He is this week's lion because he has a strong personality, he is perservering and, quite frankly, he is the cutest lion I have ever laid eyes on! His dark brown fur and stunning black mane makes him one hot lion, and his willingness to do the right thing and even his willingness to drop his hard exterior and expose his softer side make him the lion of my dreams.

Day 2

Today my teacher is 'teaching me' how to update my blog. So my first item would have to be the ebay item of a Dinner with Sarah Palin! The auction ended Friday at a final bid of $63,500 for dinner with the almost-first lady who can see Russia from her house! The best part is, you have to pass a full security screening in order to actually receive the prize. For those who are uninterested their is the new ebay item, Dinner Without Sarah Palin. Bid is at $100.

A little tidbit...

Hi! This blog will center around my favorite topics: science, politics and The Lion King! This is my first blog so don't expect anything enlightening, existential or even partially educated, but do expect lots of emotion behind my incoherent rants because quite frankly it's a lot of fun to shout stuff. (any town hall attendee can tell you that!) Anyways, my scientific section will mostly consist of various studies and intellectual books I've read ranging from technological breakthroughs to quantum physics. Politics will vary with the times and the Lion King segment will basically focus on the movies, or just on Lions (and possibly other felines) in general. Just because.