I know I will probably get flamed for this, but let's be honest. "Spirited Away" is not Miyazaki's best. In fact, I'm sorry, story, animation, soundtrack, characters, and simply EVERYTHING was simply not up to par considering his older works, like Nausicaa and Laputa.
Look, I think it's great that Miyazaki finally got the recognition he deserves. But that is just it-- I honestly think that Miyazaki is only being awarded because of his body of work, and largely because he has been ignored by the Hollywood mafia for two decades already. Furthermore, Spirited Away was up against some extremely weak competition. I mean, "Ice Age", "Treasure Planet"? I've seen more riveting animation in crapcan 70's Hanna Barbera saturday morning cartoons. Reality check: I'm sorry, but if Spirited Away went up against "Shrek", it would have been toast.
That said, I'm glad that Anime has it's foot in the door now. I guess Disney can stop making these horrible musical cartoons now, and Hollywood will start taking more Anime directors, like Oshii, far more seriously. But the sad reality is, this reeked of the typical Academy behavior of awarding a person based on a body of work rather than a truly great film.
Well, I'll just answer your first question: "What do politicians care about exploring Pluto?"
For starters, I just want to say that this is not another "superiority assertion" (What!?) by the US Government. Sorry, but the US National Team beating Portugal in the World Cup was more of a "superiority assertion" than taking photographs of Pluto. I don't see how this asserts any superiority aside from scientific knowledge, knowlege that will be shared by the world.
My theory on why this mission got the green light is as follows: As I said elsewhere in the forum, there IS a sense of paranoia over Kuiper-belt objects hitting the Earth someday. I know "Armageddon" was an atrociously bad film (How can it get any worse than "Meteor", and it took TWELVE people to write that screenplay!?), but it did give a lot of astromical merit into finding out more about the Kuiper belt. I mean, if it wasn't for that enthusiasm, maybe Quaoar and 2002AW197 would not have been found.
Secondly, this is a high-return low-risk venture for NASA. NASA is suffering a bit right now post-Columbia, so a long term 12-20 year mission is a good way to show that Congress is willing to support NASA for the long haul. Furthermore, when you have photos of space objects that people have never seen before, I think it will generate Voyager and Pathfinder levels of excitement and public interest. This will certainly boost the public's confidence with the American public.
Finally, and by far the most important reason, is our esteemed President. NASA provides a lot of JOBS to well...You guessed it: Texas and Florida. I think you can do the rest of the math without your calculator now, children.
Mrraymer, I can totally agree with your point about manned spaceflight, which more than likely explains why NASA was a bit irked about this mission. As another poster stated, they did want the money, but not on a Kuiper belt mission, but on more manned/ISS missions that will boost NASA's prestige and restore public confidence.
Then again, there is nothing wrong with a probe exploring a region of our solar system we know next to nothing about. We really haven't had a good look at Pluto or Charon, and if the probe is servicable for years (An improvement on Voyager) it is also likely that such a probe can explore other Kuiper belt objects, like Chiron or Quaoar. Believe me, when NASA beams back photos of stellar objects in our solar system that nobody has ever seen before, it will generate Voyager-esque excitement, in my opinion.
So I think it like this: It's a good long term investment for Congress and for NASA. True, NASA is down right now, but it also shows that Congress is willing to back NASA for a 12-20 year mission, and having new exciting studies of Kuiper planetoids will boost not only scientific but public confidence in NASA as well. It's the best you can do aside from a Manned Mission to Mars, and at least if the Kuiper probe fails it won't make the headlines. Remember, Congress needs NASA to stay alive, especially if they want to implement any sort of SDI Missile Defense system.
Which also leads me to ponder something else... With Congress throwing money at NASA like this, and with the general scientific and military paranoia concerning Kuiper-belt objects colliding with earth (Ala Armageddon), how much of this mission was based on misguided concern? Well, science IS science, so I won't complain.
Wow. I can imagine Charlton Heston using this one at his next speech. "And here, ladies and gentlemen, my Glock 19 is helping in the creation of life as I unload my magazine into this block of party ice. It's a proven scientific fact."
But seriously now, if the concensus is that the primordial soup was created by an electrical charge, is it possible that a meteroid bombardment on Earth's ice caps caused the initial formation of life on earth? Makes more sense than the "Organic material hitch-hiking on meteorites" theory...
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I know I will probably get flamed for this, but let's be honest. "Spirited Away" is not Miyazaki's best. In fact, I'm sorry, story, animation, soundtrack, characters, and simply EVERYTHING was simply not up to par considering his older works, like Nausicaa and Laputa. Look, I think it's great that Miyazaki finally got the recognition he deserves. But that is just it-- I honestly think that Miyazaki is only being awarded because of his body of work, and largely because he has been ignored by the Hollywood mafia for two decades already. Furthermore, Spirited Away was up against some extremely weak competition. I mean, "Ice Age", "Treasure Planet"? I've seen more riveting animation in crapcan 70's Hanna Barbera saturday morning cartoons. Reality check: I'm sorry, but if Spirited Away went up against "Shrek", it would have been toast. That said, I'm glad that Anime has it's foot in the door now. I guess Disney can stop making these horrible musical cartoons now, and Hollywood will start taking more Anime directors, like Oshii, far more seriously. But the sad reality is, this reeked of the typical Academy behavior of awarding a person based on a body of work rather than a truly great film.
Well, I'll just answer your first question: "What do politicians care about exploring Pluto?" For starters, I just want to say that this is not another "superiority assertion" (What!?) by the US Government. Sorry, but the US National Team beating Portugal in the World Cup was more of a "superiority assertion" than taking photographs of Pluto. I don't see how this asserts any superiority aside from scientific knowledge, knowlege that will be shared by the world. My theory on why this mission got the green light is as follows: As I said elsewhere in the forum, there IS a sense of paranoia over Kuiper-belt objects hitting the Earth someday. I know "Armageddon" was an atrociously bad film (How can it get any worse than "Meteor", and it took TWELVE people to write that screenplay!?), but it did give a lot of astromical merit into finding out more about the Kuiper belt. I mean, if it wasn't for that enthusiasm, maybe Quaoar and 2002AW197 would not have been found. Secondly, this is a high-return low-risk venture for NASA. NASA is suffering a bit right now post-Columbia, so a long term 12-20 year mission is a good way to show that Congress is willing to support NASA for the long haul. Furthermore, when you have photos of space objects that people have never seen before, I think it will generate Voyager and Pathfinder levels of excitement and public interest. This will certainly boost the public's confidence with the American public. Finally, and by far the most important reason, is our esteemed President. NASA provides a lot of JOBS to well...You guessed it: Texas and Florida. I think you can do the rest of the math without your calculator now, children.
Mrraymer, I can totally agree with your point about manned spaceflight, which more than likely explains why NASA was a bit irked about this mission. As another poster stated, they did want the money, but not on a Kuiper belt mission, but on more manned/ISS missions that will boost NASA's prestige and restore public confidence. Then again, there is nothing wrong with a probe exploring a region of our solar system we know next to nothing about. We really haven't had a good look at Pluto or Charon, and if the probe is servicable for years (An improvement on Voyager) it is also likely that such a probe can explore other Kuiper belt objects, like Chiron or Quaoar. Believe me, when NASA beams back photos of stellar objects in our solar system that nobody has ever seen before, it will generate Voyager-esque excitement, in my opinion. So I think it like this: It's a good long term investment for Congress and for NASA. True, NASA is down right now, but it also shows that Congress is willing to back NASA for a 12-20 year mission, and having new exciting studies of Kuiper planetoids will boost not only scientific but public confidence in NASA as well. It's the best you can do aside from a Manned Mission to Mars, and at least if the Kuiper probe fails it won't make the headlines. Remember, Congress needs NASA to stay alive, especially if they want to implement any sort of SDI Missile Defense system. Which also leads me to ponder something else... With Congress throwing money at NASA like this, and with the general scientific and military paranoia concerning Kuiper-belt objects colliding with earth (Ala Armageddon), how much of this mission was based on misguided concern? Well, science IS science, so I won't complain.
Wow. I can imagine Charlton Heston using this one at his next speech. "And here, ladies and gentlemen, my Glock 19 is helping in the creation of life as I unload my magazine into this block of party ice. It's a proven scientific fact." But seriously now, if the concensus is that the primordial soup was created by an electrical charge, is it possible that a meteroid bombardment on Earth's ice caps caused the initial formation of life on earth? Makes more sense than the "Organic material hitch-hiking on meteorites" theory...