Title: Jodie Foster, Meet Larry Summers
Review: In Contact, Jodie Foster plays Ellie Arroway, abriiliant astronomer, maybe the smartest woman in thewhole world. Mathematics and science are every bit asnatural to Ellie as knitting a scarf or whipping up asouffle. Ellie's on a one-woman mission tofind intelligent life somewhere out in the cosmos. Itsure ain't in this movie. Here's how she quantifiesher excitement:"You know, there are four hundred billion stars outthere, just in our galaxy alone. If only one out of amillion of those had planets, and just one of out of amillion of those had life, and just one out of amillion of those had intelligent life; there would beliterally millions of civilizations out there."OK, here's what I get: "one out of a million" of fourhundred billion leaves you with 400,000. So before youeven get to the second "one out of a million" you areout of millions to get one out of. This is not evenclose, and would probably get you a summer in remedialmath at even a crappy public high school.
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