US Presidential Debate #1 - Foreign Policy and National Security. Or so we were led to believe...

The debate I feared would not take place in light of McCain's antics this week is now over. It was meant to be a debate on Foreign Policy and National Security but ended up being a debate on Economic and Foreign Policy, leaving me wondering what the last Presidential debate will consist of (It was originally supposed to be a debate on Domestic and Economic Policy...would they redo the economic bit?).

The debate started off with the economy and the economic crisis for which Obama took a clear lead. This change in schedule may have cost McCain the debate as he is clearly superior when it comes to foreign policy and security issues...but, as many have pointed out, he is not exactly and economic genius. Not to say, he doesn't know anything...but it's not his forte.

However, once foreign policy was brought into play McCain recovered while Obama faltered on several occasions. So it was a fortunate turn of events for Obama when economic issues were discussed in the debate.

Nonetheless, in my opinion, while Obama did win, he did not win by a huge margin as would have been expected during the first half of the debate. John McCain's recovery was great enough (when coupled with Obama's lack of foreign policy experience) to make it a close debate. In the end, the scales were in Obama's favour in my opinion.

October 2nd is the day of the Vice-Presidential Debate. I won't be watching or commenting on that as it's not all that important in my opinion. I will, however, use it as a tie breaker in the unlikely event that I cannot choose between the candidates after all three debates. October 7th is the next Presidential Debate which is a town hall format and may be the most interesting debate of them all. I'll be here on October 8th (I hope) to provide my usual analysis.

If I COULD vote, and the election was RIGHT NOW, my vote...after a lot of hesitation, would go to Barack Obama. Although, I might also just tear up the ballot as it really is too close for me.

Until next time, readers of this man's rants - I'm Darryl, from Malta - Online.

LHC by CERN and TSLoZ+C - the DCOS

You're probably wondering what kind of Chemistry jargon I've made up there. Actually, what that stands for is "Large Hadron Collider by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody - The Disney Channel Original Series" ... but that was too long to fit in the title. Blogpost no. 40 is, as you may have realised, a combination of two topics.

The first one is a farewell to The Suite Life of Zack and Cody which ended September 1st with the episode Mr. Tipton Comes to Visit. The vase broke, Muriel returned, flashbacks were shown but nothing that suggested that THIS would be the last episode. As I recall, Esteban was absent from the episode except through flashbacks. Anyway, the series will not be creating any new episodes and has made way for the spinoff - The Suite Life on Deck, with returning characters Zack, Cody, London and Mr. Moseby. Carrie and Maddie will probably take the place of Esteban and Arwin as recurring characters.

The Suite Life on Deck premieres on the 26th of September. This makes The Emperor's New School the longest running DCOS (it is scheduled to end around November this year) and Hannah Montana the longest running live-action DCOS. I predict that American viewers can expect The Proud Family or Dave the Barbarian to end syndication to make way for new episodes while us international viewers could be saying goodbye to any of Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch : the Series or Brandy and Mr. Whiskers. Disney Channel has another 3 series' in production (Aaron Stone, Welcome to Holliwood (changed from Mollywood) and J.O.N.A.S.!) but that's a blog for when The Emperor's New Groove gets pulled off.

The second part of the blog is more about asking philosophical questions. By now, many of you would have heard of the Large Hadron Collider which launched it's first particle today after 20 years and 9 Billion dollars of work. The aim here is to recreate the Big Bang - the first collision is expected to take place next month. This experiment could create new elements of Physics (Future Physics students : Be afraid!) and scientists hope to unravel some of the mysteries of time travel (among other discoveries which I find less interesting).

Skeptics argue that this experiment may create a black hole which will engulf the Earth. Scientists refute that claim. But if a black hole is created and we all die...would it make a difference? It would be painless and we'd all go together. Does recreating the Big Bang eventually lead to the development of a new universe (which for us would be miniature) which would lead to life? Would be considered 'God' to that life? What about the person we call God? Is this how we were created? Were we an experiment in a science lab? Are the scientists of that LARGER universe, who we call God? If that is the case, then is there a heaven? If so, where is it? Is it PART of the universe?

These are all questions for which, I'm not looking for easy, straight-forward answers to. I'm more interested in watching the experiment pan out. If we die, we die, nothing ventured - nothing gained. If we create a new universe, well and good. If we discover time travel, even better. If we discover new areas of physics...well...that has its good sides and its bad sides. If some people get super powers, I hope one of those people is me.

And the ultimate question...we know there is no life other than ours in our half of the Milky Way...but on the other side of the galaxy and in the rest of the universe (which we've only seen 4% of), has the life which exists there tried this before? If so, ho many universes are there and when does it end?

Finally, this experiment proves what I've believed all along. That Creation and Evolution are both responsible for our existence and one cannot, and should not, be prioritised over the other. This is a clear example of someone creating and setting of the Big Bang and letting evolution and nature take over based on a rough, grand design.

Darryl, from Malta - Online will be posting again, assuming we survive. But I think we will.

Not Lost, Episode 7 : Grave Revelations

The finale of the third series of Not Lost episodes, Grave Revelations, is now available. Courtesy of Not Lost Productions :



A minimalist production using just PowerPoint and Wondershare.

For information on the release of the fourth series, keep an eye on Not Lost Production's Channel at : http://www.youtube.com/user/NotLostProductions.

Republican National Convention : Due to Hurricane Gustav, the first day of the convention was cancelled with those involved only meeting to open the ceremony as is mandated by the regulations of the Republican National Committee. Originally, the convention was to have George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking (among others) but both had to cancel due to Gustav and state budgets respectively. At first it looked like the convention would go on with Laura Bush and Joe Lieberman but John McCain ordered a cancellation of the events. In the end, Laura Bush and Cindy McCain just made an appearance to ask for donations to the Gustav effort. So far, the rest of the convention is meant to proceed according to the schedule with slight speaker changes.

Lisbon Treaty : European Parliaments begin returning to work, and so must we. The votes of the Czech and Swedish parliament are still up in the air. Here's the link to the petition I've mentioned in previous posts : http://www.petitiononline.com/NoLisbon/petition.html

This is Darryl from Malta - Online.