Angry Birds? Your Parents When They Realize You Did This for the Last Hour

            I stand outside with a cold strong breeze blowing in my face, my hair, being blown in all different directions by the wind, a windblown hair styling people would say. I look down at the small little thing in my hand and wonder if it really deserves another chance, but no, I have made up my mind, and if I back down now, it may be too late for the future. Grasping this thing in my hand very tightly, knowing it will be the last time I ever see it, I fling it into the air, whispering, “Be free,” That’s it, it is gone now. My last hope for humanity.

            As many of you iPod and Android users know, Rovio has released another sequel in their long chain of games. This new Angry Birds is based off of Star Wars, and no, not the first angry birds Star Wars, that came out a while ago, but Star Wars II. This, as you all can imagine, has taken a great deal of creativity to come up with, the theme especially. Ever since the company’s first game in 2009, it has found more and more ways to have people spend more and more money in the game. I mean, I am really not just speaking about Angry Birds, but a majority of games on the market. Many of them want to make money, and for good reason too, but it always contains in-app purchases and other hidden features that people need to pay for, and it becomes kind of worrisome on the future generation.

            I know it may seem ludicrous to some of the readers, but being bored, or not getting what you want for Christmas, is not some of the world’s more pressing issues. Many kids have been raised in a world filled with electronics and are extremely attached to them. Speaking from some personal experience of having a younger sibling, they do believe they can do whatever they want because well, “It’s ‘Murica, right?” without trying too hard. Mine is obsessive over the handheld electronics. I mean, I’m not exactly Mister Innocent myself, but I make an effort to consider the effects of what may happen if I get sucked into a game.

            This then, brings me back to Angry Birds, it is extremely time consuming, and even though the levels do not take too long to get through, it always tempts you to play another one, or use real money to buy power ups and upgrades. It drains time and resources, and leaves a person with a feeling of incompletion, because, “there are some more levels to go!” or “Oh no! I got two stars instead of three, better try it again,” Still, one would think people would become bored of these games after like the millionth sequel, or learn what a giant waste of time it is, but I guess not.

THERE IS SALT IN THE OCEAN, I REPEAT, THERE IS SALT IN THE OCEAN!

            I am so glad this finally happened. People are starting to actually starting to care about the sustainability of the Earth, and with that, come the survival of the human race. They created a new piece of technology, which can help the poorer part of the planet, stay afloat, unlike other unnecessary wastes of technology that really is not needed for survival. I can almost guarantee that more people have iPhones than do people have access to clean drinking water. Before any of you readers start to contradict me on that, it is a desalination device, it was only a projected use for it, and if it could take out the dissolved salt particles from the water, I’m pretty sure it could do some basic dirt particles. Anyway, not only do these scientists who created care about the human race, but it was an improvement on an earlier invention. These water desalination devices are friendly to the environment, and so people can use them without worrying about any adverse harmful effects on the environment.

            Even though this new device is friendly to the environment, it still could be improved if it were made to be biodegradable, but I suppose a person can’t have a cake and eat it too, unless he or she is an extremely rich person, which then he could eat a cake, and take someone else’s too. Although being biodegradable would be nice for this device, it may not be necessary at all, depending on the people who have access to the device in question. If it were a closed group of scientists, if they took the time to create a device that is friendly to the environment, it is sure they will not just toss a piece of plastic randomly into the ocean or litter. If given to the general human population of first world countries, it would be another farewell to seagulls and turtles.

            If this device works well, it could start saving many villages in Africa, and other areas without clean drinking water, but it raises the question of the degree of how well it works in different conditions, or even how much it is able to filter out. Even though this is a great solution to a worldwide problem of polluted water because of needless waste of materials, especially in America, one of the best solutions is to stop the problem from happening in the first place. So, even though I do not usually get all pro-environment often, I do beg you readers to consider about the poorer people sometimes.

Transpolyatomic ions, Elements in Disguise

            This article is pretty amazing, I mean, nobody ever thought that people like Nicholas Flannel would ever be considered a realistic scientist. Alchemy has always been some sort of mythical, magical thing that nobody has probably even considered in the last, oh, couple hundred years. Everyone has heard those jokes about the philosopher’s stone, which can pocket a person some free gold, and any person that has a die hard, must find the stone attitude, is ridiculed at by nearly every person in the human population. The real world does not have a philosopher’s stone, otherwise the crime rate and murder rate would be much higher than it currently is, which, then again, is really saying something.

            This article is kind of old, but it still is relatively new compared to some of the previous advancements in the field of Alchemy. To clarify what alchemy really is, alchemy is the change from one substance to another. The fabled philosopher’s stone was supposed to have a Midas’ Touch on it, because gold would be what everyone is after. This is not much of an advancement as all he really did was change the properties of an element to reflect a much rarer element. Although this advancement is really small, it really is a group collection of really small steps that constitute of one really large step, and without the small steps, human civilization would not be where it is.

Even still, this is not so much alchemy as it is chemistry, but chemistry is a form of alchemy I suppose. With current knowledge, it is know that the amount of protons or electrons something has, it gives it about the same properties, and so all they did was knock of an electron. Although it seems fairly obvious right now, it has not been done before, and this new advancement could save thousands of dollars in the environmental world. As platinum was used to counteract a known dangerous gas to humans, this new alchemy could change one of the cheaper metals, into a sad replica of the expensive one.

Outside of this though, it really does not have too much of a use, no bank is really going to change their top credit card labels from “PLATINUM” to “the shoddy tungsten replacement for platinum, because we are too cheap to actually obtain real platinum” well, for an obvious reason of course. This may seem worthless right now, because it does not really apply to you, and it is not even close to a philosopher’s stone, but some day. Some day.

Sleep Can Be More Helpful Than You Think

            Apparently, to get over one’s fears, scientists have found a new, less painful method to remove someone’s phobias than the old traditional way. This new method treats a person in their sleep, whereas the old way was a prolonged exposure to the feared object in hopes of creating new safer memories to outlast the old one.

            This method is pretty amazing to me, because it removes all fear, or at least it theoretically should, during sleep. Although, being the skeptic that I am, it does not make a lot of sense if I just use some common sense and logic. Sleep is the time where a person is most vulnerable; he or she is incapacitated and experiences hallucinations, and then is extremely disoriented when woken up. I personally, can attribute to the truthfulness of this every day of my life when my alarm goes off. Here I am, sleeping oh ever so peacefully, when a blaring siren goes off and I am forced to flail around a bit before I find the snooze button. Thus, trying to incorporate some of his or hers fears into their dreams or sleep does not seem like too bright of an idea. I remember when it happened to me as a child, I think they were called nightmares. Anybody who has had a nightmare obviously knows the terrors of having one, and usually would prefer not to experience them again.

            Of course, this method has hardly been tested and is not ready for full judgment yet, because only 15 people were tested, and the new method is most nearly associated with a person’s sense of smell. Some fears that are specifically linked to some smells would be hard to find, such as arachnophobia. Anyone with arachnophobia who knows what a spider smells like probably does not actually have it if one got close enough to smell it. This could also go horribly wrong when the person associates a good memory with a particular smell, and when the scientists associate the smell with something he or she fears, nothing too good can come out of that. Although, it could have the opposite effect, as in associating the feared item with a good memory which reduces how scary it is. Like I said, it still needs to be tested before any real judgment on it can be made.

            As for now, I think it is a fantastic idea with a couple of holes that need to be filled. It could later become a wonderful treatment, but not a guaranteed treatment, because each individual’s psyche reacts differently to the same situations.

Putting Water in Batteries? What Could Go Wrong?

            A couple of scientists have spent a while laboring over this new type of battery that instead of lithium, can use water instead. This new method is much cheaper than the old way, but still, I do not think this way is amazing like it states in the article.

            The first problem I find with it is that it takes one of Earth’s most precious resources, in fact the resource that is one of the reasons that Earth can sustain life. Once this happens, a precious resource will once again end up in short supply, because even still, many people do not have access to clean water. This then also brings me to the affluence of many first world countries. Compared to third world countries, first worlds have it easy, but even still, many people fall victim to FWP. First World Problems. Next time a friend starts complaining about how his or her water is not cold enough. Hand them a straw, and tell them to suck it up, because there are much more disastrous situations than those.

            This innovation also troubles me, because if people could discover this, why could they have not found a perpetual resource to use, such as the sun, instead of water, which is already in high demand. Of course, if it were to use salt water or polluted water, and purify it in the process, it would be a completely different story and I would be extremely impressed. In the meantime, the details are closed off from the public, so when it comes out, I will make sure to have a follow up review on it.

            Now, the most obvious problem there is with this innovation. I mean, come on, it is an electronic device, and there is water inside of it. Ever since pre-k it seems that every human being has been taught that electricity and water do not go together. Exhibit A is pokemon. Everybody knows that electricity destroys water. My parents always told me never to put a hair dryer under water…again, hey, I liked bubbles back then, do not judge me. What if the water leaks out, and an innocent child is electrocuted, I do not need a psychic to tell me what happens next, I see a lawsuit in the future.

            All in all though, it is a great innovation, I am just what many people call “nit-picking” because out of all its negative parts, its benefits still outweigh possible risks and its negatives. These benefits can be read about in the article.

iOS 7? More like IOSteve $700

            Looks like Apple is at it again, using its typical “new and improved” design to try and have people who own the previous operating system, buy a new one. Like many of its previous updates, not only will they really not give you a choice on updating the current one, it almost forces it upon you. As much as Apple pretends that this will be the most updated version, everyone knows at the back of their mind, whether one chooses to listen to it, there will be another update coming within a year.

             These commercials Apple puts out about its products mirror each other almost completely. The least we consumers can ask for is some originality, such as promising a better design, then all of a sudden, the black phones turn into white ones. How creative! Along with Apple’s creativity, it has fantastic originality too. The iOS 7 also contains the wonderful application of multitasking, I mean, no one has ever seen that happen before on a different phone brand either, right? As great as these updates are, many people will still rush to obtain a phone, and this includes many people who have a phone.

              Although, the fault does not fall too much to the consumer. I must give Apple many props to how it is able to keep their customers and convince them to buy more and more of their products. The most compelling reason for us consumers to continuously buy their phones is because of all the graphics updates for many of the applications. Just the other day, I was downloading a couple of applications from the app store, or at least I was attempting to download some applications. The store kept crashing, which I assume is because it takes more processing speed now to keep up with the rate the store is going at. When I am finally able to download one, it also crashes multiple times before I can start the game. On the umpteenth try, I finally have the application running, which apparently needs processing time too, because I would proceed to see skipping frames. One frame would suddenly jump to the next, and I would be completely lost on what happened in between. This had me so frustrated, it made me consider smashing it and buying a new one.

            Though, this is not saying that all of the updates are horrible. Many of the new updates are useful, such as the iOS in the car, which allows people to, in theory, text and drive. Many of the old functions that had people frustrated are now fixed, and made easier. Personally, it just does not seem like these couple updates are worth a chunk of a wallet.