Outside experience

As friends and I sat outside one day, an experience like none other came upon us. Here is the account:

The first things that were experienced outside of the classroom were sound, sight, and touch. My first sensations were the sounds nearest to me which consisted of my breathing and the bugs in my ears. Annoying bugs they were, but I quickly got over them as they left my personal space. Quickly followed were the sounds of the construction going on next to us. It is such a unique sound and fully not usually apart of the BC campus, but today these sounds were loud and apparent. There are also far off sounds such as cars driving by, people talking and walking past us, but the construction sound was by far the most notable.

Touch was the proceeding sensation that overwhelmed me in a unique way. I don’t know about the other’s experiences, but I was quickly bit by a bug upon arrival and therefore it affected me throughout my experience. The grass running through my fingers, the wind on my face, the sun beating down upon me; they were all overshadowed by this one bug bite which itched like none other. This also added to my feeling as I wasn’t feeling much else other than this itch. Sitting outside was a good idea until this happened.

We soon realized that sitting outside was no longer enjoyable so we decided to do something more productive for it is a Sunday and there is plenty of homework to be done.

Side effect could be death

With its many capabilities, the cell phone has been the most prominent distracter of drivers on the road. Many of these distractions are caused by the inability for drivers to multitask while operating a motor vehicle. “The US Department of Transportation estimated that 25% of the 6.3 million crashes each year involve some degree of driver distraction or inattention." With the number of things drivers have to focus on, by removing the cell phone out of the picture, there will be less of a distraction. “While multitasking may seem to be saving time, psychologists, neurologists and others are finding that it can put us under a great deal of stress and actually make us less efficient”

In their study, Joel M Cooper and David L. Strayer investigated the effects of cell phone distracted driving and simulator practice. The study observed drivers while using a cell phone and requiring them to drive in a simulated driving experience. “In the study, a passenger acted as another set of eyes for the driver in the test and even stopped or started talking depending on the difficulty of conditions outside of the car. Meanwhile, half the drivers talking on a hands-free phone failed, bypassing the rest area he test had called for them to stop at. It was also found that while talking on the phone, it impaired the driver’s ability to engage the braking system of the vehicle; the reaction time was considerably lower than those not on the phone. This is what causes accidents in the real-world and what can be prevented.

Gmail Motion made reality

"If you happened upon the Internet Friday, you would have been faced with what has now become an annual tradition online: Technology companies trying to one-up each other with April Fool's jokes posted online. Google, for one, takes its April Fool's gags very seriously. This year was no exception. Users of Gmail, Google's e-mail service, were told about a new product, Gmail Motion, which would allow people to "control Gmail with your body!"

This exerpt from an article found in The New York Times shows to what extent companies go in order to play into the spirit of the 'holiday' April Fools. There is no telling just how many people would believe a claim such as this. Even though it is a viable company that has plenty of influence, and even has its own trustworthy search engine, who would possibly believe that Gmail could be controlled with the body?

The company made a full mock video on how on how their new product, Gmail Motion would work. Filled with phony hand gestures and body movements, these new ways to send e-mails would save the user time and effort. Google made its new product a web page as well explaining all of its new 'motion guide' and testimonies from specialists in different fields from movement specialists to paralanguage experts.

After seeing the hoax, hackers at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies made it into a reality. Using sensors from Microsoft Kinect and some created software, they successfully made it work. With all of the motions that Google created, this group of hackers created an exact replica of the phony product. When there is a will, there is a way as they say.

Here is the link to the original article:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/hackers-turn-a-gmail-april-fools-joke-into-a-reality/?ref=technology

Nature trumps technology

"In a new study, researchers report that bumblebees were able to figure out the most efficient routes among several computer-controlled 'flowers,' quickly solving a complex problem that even stumps supercomputers. We already know bees are pretty good at facial recognition, and researchers have shown they can also be effective air-quality monitors."

In this study done at Queen Mary University of London, bees found the shortest distance between man-made flowers. This task seems extremely simple for a bee and even us, but it took supercomputers days to figure this out. It's pretty amazing how our latest technology cannot match a bee when it comes to this act. This task is called the "traveling salesman" and has been an ongoing problem in computer science. It can be applied to other practical uses such as finding the shortest route between cities while visiting each city only once. The thought that supercomputers are having trouble with a practical problem baffles the mind. No matter how advanced our technology is, or our computing power of the latest computers, bees can still do things that these super computers cannot.

To test bee problem-solving, researchers Lars Chittka and Mathieu Lihoreau tested bees’ response to computer-controlled artificial flowers. They wanted to see whether the bees would go after the flowers in the order in which they were discovered, or if they would figure out the shortest route among all the flowers even as new ones were added. The bees explored the locations of the flowers and quickly figured out the shortest paths among them, according to a Queen Mary news release.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/10/bees-solve-complex-problems-faster-than-supercomputers.html

Not a drop to drink

So much water, and not a drop to drink..

"Of the 6 billion people in the world today in one of the hundreds of the countries that control the landmasses, this only spans about 30 percent. The other 70 percent of the earth is comprised of water; it is water that shapes the makeup of the earth's surface." Water is a precious, natural source of life on Earth. There is a plentiful amount of water in the world, but not everyone has the same privileges to an available source of clean water. "Despite the fact that the majority of the earth is covered in water, 97 percent of it is salty and the majority of the fresh water is stored in glaciers or underground aquifers; meaning the remaining available freshwater is less than 1 percent of the water on earth."

With all people in the world, there is not enough water distributed equally to the entire population. There is a water crises around the world are affecting large populations everyday. Clean water is unavailable to over 1.3 billion people due to multiple circumstances including lack of access, pollution, and scarcity. This exists on all corners of the globe. "With these causes, nearly 6,000 people will die from drinking unclean water in the next 24 hours. At this staggering rate, situations are not getting better to billions of people.

Luckily, there is something the rest of us not affected can do to help. A few companies such as PUR and Procter & Gamble have a few ways to aid people that do not have the resources to help themselves. The PUR Purifier of Water is a powder that when applied to tainted water kills viruses and bacteria making the water safe to drink. With each purchase of a PUR product the company says that 'for every product sold, 10 liters of clean water will be donated'. Another product is the LifeStraw made by Rotary International. This is a device that is about the size of a straw that filters water as someone drinks from it. It claims to provide clean water for up to 700 liters of water. That is around 1 year of clean drinking water. LifeStraw is only $6.50 for each straw.

Efforts such as these can be helpful for many people in parts of the world that are surrounded by harmful drinking water. With each product being so cheap, anyone can donate money to help with this relief. It is up to the international community to aid in every way they can. Each donation will go a long way.

For more information follow these sites:

LifeStraw

http://www.rotarywaterprojects.org/index.html

PUR Purifier of Water

http://www.purwater.com/clean-drinking-water-for-the-world.html

The Last Question

Exerpt from The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.

All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.

All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.

But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.

A timeless interval was spent in doing that.

And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.

For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.

The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

And there was light----

An epic story about the evolution of man's creation to answer all questions he may have; the answer to all problems. First appearing in the form of a collasal device and evolving into smaller, more powerful versions while becoming ever so smaller and faster. The device ends up becoming the very living conciousness that the human mind once was. The story predicts the future of our technology today and its advancement through the ages. An excellent story by Asimov and a must read for anyone.

It can be found here at Multivax.com

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

The Human Evolution

We are all cyborgs now..

This line is Amber Case's main point in her talk on TED.com. She says that as humans become more in tune with the technology we create to help us live our lives, we become more dependent on it. No we're not the cyborgs we see in popular films, not yet anyway. A cyborg is simply defined as "an organism to which exogenous components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments." By simply using a computer to complete a task or using a cell phone to communicate with others, for that time we are a cyborg. With the rise of communicative technology, we are becoming more connected in ways never dreamed of 20 years ago. The new environment we are adapting to is a brand new world without the bounds of time and space. Two people can be on opposite ends of the globe and talk to one another without any travelling necessary. This is the most connected we have been in history.

As we become a new type of button-clicking human beings, what it means to be human is inherently changing. Our dynamics are fully changing. We no longer have only our physical self to worry about, but also the maintenance of our digital self. It is just as important since our presence on the Internet will be seen by more people. There is a digital record of what we've been through, our entire electronic history is stored and is on display for the world to see. This is not true in the physical world so it adds a new dynamic to our lives. Self presentation management is active through social websites, blogs, etc.

"It's too bad that everyone who has a solution for everything is at home commenting on the Internet" With society multitasking so much, few stop and focus on tasks as they come.

Here is Amber Case's talk on TED.com http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html