iLose My Personal Info

            Looks like Apple thinks we enjoy having our personal information at a risk if it makes things easier for us. With some of the new apple devices, there has been a fingerprint scanner on these, found here. These record your fingerprints and then later, when you want to access the phone, you swipe your finger and it should work. The problem with this is that fingerprints is how the authorities identify you, and so it would be very easy to frame someone if they got ahold of copies of the prints.

            On a large scale, nearly every company has been hacked and had tons of information stolen which has led to millions of dollars lost to these hackers. Now, this kind of stuff is only credit card information, and once found out, can easily be solved. Fingerprints, on the other hand, can be printed out on a printer and then forged on to an artificial hand, which makes it extremely easy to frame someone for something that they did not do. Although it would be more convenient than remembering a four digit passcode with only ten choices, or for the more paranoid, a full keyboard with multiple letters, is the convenience really worth the risk of being framed or losing money just so you could go play a quick game of Angry Birds, or even worse these days, FLAPPY BIRD? (Currently trying to save someone’s life from being sucked in to it, do not download this game.)

            Although it would be secure, I really do not think it would be completely foolproof, because the digital scanners, unless they were extremely high tech which they should not be since Apple actually wants to make a profit out of these, would be fairly pixelated, and so would not remember the person’s exact fingerprints, so if someone else were to come along with similar fingerprints, the scanner would not be advanced enough to tell the difference and so would let them in. Even if it were only one person in a hundred thousand, keep in mind we have nearly seven billion people in the world. Not that there would be any sorts of important information in the device.

            On a micro scale though, this technology would be great. We all know those people who are really annoying, myself included, that when they see a friend’s iPod or iPhone just lying around, they keep putting in random passcodes until the phone locks itself for like thirty years. This would stop that because it would stop locking, since it guarantees it really is not the person. So, in the short run, it would be a great idea, but in the bigger terms of things, it is a truly outrageous idea.

Down With Homework!!

                As a high school student, I obviously take multiple high school classes and because I want to gain admission to a good college, I take many AP courses. Although these courses are supposed to help with college, I still have not found a use for it, and some colleges still do not accept these courses at their full value.

                One of the main reasons for this is because there is a high amount of fluff when someone looks at a grade. Many AP teachers give a lot of homework to students and this homework factor changes the college equation a lot, because it does not exactly show a person’s mastery of the course. As one of my teachers eloquently put it, “Homework is only there to stop parents from complaining that they think their child is not learning anything.” This has more truth than most people would think. In many of my classes, homework is just busy work that I am forced to do if I want to make it seem like I know what I am doing in my class. In reality, homework is pretty much worthless for me, because I just get through it and not really study it, because I enjoy sleeping before midnight. If I were to study my homework and try on it, sleep would just be another myth.

                In the age of Google and the internet, homework becomes even more meaningless. What really shows a person’s mastery of a subject are the tests they take in class. Albeit homework is supposed to help study for these tests, but I once had a teacher that forced everyone to create flashcards to study for a test. She was determined that everyone who used flashcards would immediately pass the test. I promptly failed the test, because flashcards do not in any way help me study. Some might say that I should have used my own test studying strategy to study, except that I had not time to, because these were a lot of flashcards that I had to make. Thus, teachers should take out the homework from their classes and have the grade in their class be from mostly tests.

                Tests in class are the only accurate reflection of a person’s grade now, because this is the only time where a person cannot cheat freely. If a person truly learned the material, it would be an easy test to pass, and if they did not learn the material, the grade would just be an accurate reflection of what the person knew in the subject.

We Need Dem "Shrooms"

                Reading this article from a newspaper makes me extremely glad that people are still caring enough about the environment to find a way to purify polluted waters. This article talks about people using mushrooms to purify water by dumping multiple mushrooms in the water, and it would purify the water. This is either people looking out for the environment, or, like most people, just looking out for their own self-interests, because if they are anything like me, they do not want to be drinking any kinds of polluted or black water, since it just sounds plenty disgusting in general. In fact, my sister will not even drink water if there is anything in the cup before the water hits it, even if it was drinkable.

                This purification also affects many fish living inside of the lake; in fact, they do not recommend multiple servings of the fish in the water, due to the high pollution content of the water. After this mushroom experiment, it should become much safer for people to eat, and maybe even to swim in…if they want to start polluting it again. Only one problem I see with this is that if the mushrooms ever fall out of this bag and start growing, if it was not originally naturally from the area, it could easily become an invasive species, which kind of would defeat the original purpose, like many other invasive species that have been introduced. Along with this problem is if the coffee grounds were to be released, it also would just add to the pollution content. Not only this, but it also uses plastic bags to store these, and well, everyone should know the problem with throwing plastic into a river, it is called littering and usually punishable by law.

                This has not come out with any official results, because it still is being tested and recording the negative or positive effects on the environment, and hopefully if it would be efficient enough to be used ubiquitously across the United States. Not only would the time efficiency factor into this, but cost efficiency too, because if it costs too much to provide constant purification comparable to the environmental benefits. All in all, I think it is too early to determine whether or not this would be a good idea that should be used everywhere. Even if it does not work, they should continue to try and make it better or more efficient, because mushrooms grow quickly, and in itself should not be too harmful to the environment.

Twerking Harder Better Faster Stronger

                Those people you just saw “twerking” on the internet the other day? Well, according to this article, they were probably descended from spiders compared to what we normal humans are descended from. Please note to all the people with arachnophobia to not go to this page, some viewer discretion may be advised. These spiders, and some other animals, will violently shake when the time of mating season comes around. I guess you could say the same for people.

                Why anyone would twerk in the privacy in their own home is kind of understandable though a little strange, but then recording it and posting it online? That, to me, is just kind of baffling. At this point, it may just be a stupid dare, or primal instincts starting to surge through. All different kinds of animals do this kind of shaking and mostly for different reasons, but there are some things in common between them, such as they are usually used to mark something, whether it be territory or a mating opportunity. To justify the reason for twerking, these people probably want to mark their place in the internet by outdoing each other. This is of course a giant regression in the development of the human mind, and if it ever continues, probably in all of mankind.

               This brings me to my next point. Although we humans declare that we are superior to other humans in some points, even if some are not true, even the ones people consider to be the most inferior, will declare themselves much better than any kinds of animals. These kinds of actions make me wonder if we really are any better than animals. This is not some sort of Darwinist theory or anything, but some people make the dumbest mistakes. Correct, their prefrontal cortex has not fully developed, but then again, does it not seem that sometimes if it even develops in some people. The stupidest actions caused by the stupidest of people, like drag racing a Lamborghini, really should not be tolerated. This does not lead me to believe that everyone needs to do it though, like people on the internet.

                On the Internet, multiple people will freely speak their thoughts in a rude and childish manner because they have the barrier of the screen to hide behind. I am looking straight at you League of Legends players. It always makes me angry that multiple people will criticize a person for a mistake that the critic would most likely have made too. I just wish stupid actions were dealt with more severely, and not set a bail at a relatively low price.

Operation Transformers: Roll Out

                This is definitely one of the cooler things that I have seen before. As a child, I was gifted a Transformer and was extremely fascinated by them. Of course, like everyone who had actually seen the commercials for them, I was pretty disappointed when I could not actually transform it in two seconds or less like they did on television. The designer for this helicopter truck vehicle had the same idea. Although it is a great idea, unfortunately it has not been tested, so the calculations for the lift should be enough for it to run smoothly, but it has not yet been perfected. This helicopter truck has been designed for retrieving men that have been left in a position, which means even less men will be left behind. It is actually not controlled from within, but rather from a different location, and so it reduces the risk to humans.

                Unlike a transformer it does not transform into a talking robot nor does it transform into something really cool, but that would be just unnecessary for its purpose. All a cool design would do for it is drag it down and make it slower. As you can probably tell from some of the pictures of it, all it really is an outer skeletal design, which makes it lighter, faster and more effective. Although they made it as fast and barely substantiated there, it does have all the necessary parts, such as a couple bulletproof windows. Thus, this invention does not sacrifice much of its mobility compared to the usefulness of it.

                An improvement that I could think of is transforming it into one of the “duck” vehicles, linked here. This way, it could traverse all kinds of terrain, whether it be sky, earth, or water. Since I have not done any of the calculations, nor have I obtained the blueprints to it, so I honestly do not know if this is a viable addition. It might sacrifice too much of its speed and become clunky. It would be already extremely difficult to maneuver it from a distance because of signal speed, and landing it at the perfect speed, otherwise it becomes stranded or broken. The person driving would need an amazing perspective vision, since it is not manned by a human. Think of the difficulty for a moment. In order to pilot this vehicle, it would have to be done very precisely, and in the heat of a mission, a single mistake could cause the incompletion of an objective. All the while driving this, you would have 3-D vision, it would all be flat, and you would have to construct your own picture from cameras. If perfectly pulled off though, it could become an effective use of machinery.

We're All In This Together

                Well this article just shows another step for the robot revolution against humankind. Well, it will not happen immediately, but anyone with malicious intent could easily pull it off. The idea behind this is to save time by combining multiple devices that are able to go off at the same time, such as, putting bread in a toaster the night before, then in the morning, when you wake up reluctantly, and you hit the alarm, the toaster will also go off. So when you get out of the shower, the toast will be ready and it allows you to get to work or wherever you must go on time.

 I find it a fantastic idea, all depending on which appliances are connected to each other, and it may be hard programming this to perfection, like most things are, but doing this without bugs would be even harder if you ask me. Most people have seen the cartoons that show the linked appliances, like when he or she wakes up in the morning, they then have a mechanical bed and then slip into their clothes and grab toast on their way out. Well, if this represents a human population, more than anything, if these appliances were to be connected, there would be no way that anyone would get up when the alarm first rang. Most people, me included, would just fall back asleep. If this were connected to something that could damage the environment or waste materials, it would be a waste of money. One such example is having the shower turn on when the alarm is hit. This then becomes a huge waste of resources and is obviously not worth the money.

Another problem found with this idea is that, like I said earlier, evil doers could easily hack into these appliances and make them go off randomly, or possibly send spam emails, which would be now easier to send. This is due to these new appliances would have multiple IP addresses, because they would need them to synergize with each other. This is also part of my fear of technology becoming an increasingly important part of society, because it not only makes us ignorant of our surroundings, but it also can be used against us. Don’t get me wrong on this one though. I know I write a blog that is partly about improvements on technology, and I think technology is fantastic, but it does not need to be used in every occasion. 

FPS? How About an FPP?

           One of my favorite things to do in my free time is find new optical illusions that I have not seen before. I do not think that anyone can say that they have not seen the optical illusion of the two different lines that look like different lengths, but are in reality the same, or something like it. This is a link to it for those who really have not. I am sure that many of us have always wanted to waste a trip to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa just so we could do something done multiple times before, such as leaning on the tower or trying to hold it up. This video shows a game that plays upon this concept termed “forced perspective” which is pretty fascinating for me.

            The possibilities here are fairly large for the gaming world, or so I think. It could be a continuation in the Portal series, or this game would be fun in itself. As long as the visuals are upgraded and the graphics are improved, this could easily become a top seller. Although this is first built for a computer, it could easily be reprogrammed into something for more popular gaming systems, like the Xbox or PlayStation. I can see multiple parents, and me eventually, buying this for their kids to help with education and to explain the concept of perspective, which is a fairly hard concept to teach.

            This game reminded me of one thing in particular, Alice in Wonderland. The perspectives in both of them are so far from the normal that it makes the game extremely fun to play or watch. One of my favorite scenes in this is the portals. It allows the player to change sizes and see things from a different point of view, which brings up an important lesson. This game also has an underlying theme to problem solving in real life, which is if you get stuck doing something and it continuously fails, well maybe it is time to try it from a different perspective. As this game has multiple ways of solving each level, although some may be better or more efficient than the other, it shows that there can be multiple ways to do something, and so unless it is officially proven that one way is better than the other, a person should not dogmatically tell the other that his or her idea is inferior, because nobody likes those kinds of people.

Pulitzer? Here I Come!

                As a learner in AP Language and Composition, I found this fairly amazing. This article shows a group of software developers that have created a machine that can predict whether or not a book will win a literary prize or will become popular. It turns out that popular language is the most preferred on the range of formality for writing.

                This makes complete sense because “fancy” or formal words tend to confuse people. I am a pretty avid reader, and so a personal example to draw on is when I choose a book. When I flip to a random page and see words that I do not understand, I put the book away and choose another one. Now, I could go the extra mile and look these words up which would extend my vocabulary, but my teenager side is telling me that it would be a horrible idea. It is in part why appreciation of poetry has nearly gone extinct in my generation, because we enjoy things handed to us on a silver platter. This directly relates to popular language and a book’s popularity. We usually want them to tell us exactly what they are thinking, and not have to interpret it.

                The further extent of this would be that these people could make bank off of this. If an author would have every work analyzed and follow the “rubric” the machine gives, it should produce a favorable response. The problem with it is that this can only work for so long, unless it continuously adapts to popular desire, because like anything, if you are exposed to it for a long time, it then becomes horrible and disgusting. At this point, I would like to give a shout out to all radio stations. Therefore, unless this machine can change to public opinion, it will probably become outdated in a couple of years.

                As much as it hurts me to say, books also may become outdated in favor of movies as they become even more popular, especially when many can instantly obtain them from Netflix. Many of my classmates have forsaken books in exchange for television, movies, and especially video games. Nobody has ever heard of a book reading addiction nor would they think it as of a negative addiction if someone had one. All in all though, this in the end is only a machine, and although it can give close results, it cannot fully replace a human. When that does happen, humans would probably stop having a purpose.

Some People Want a "Schooling"

          Everyone who has gone through High School most likely either knows or is the person that did not care too much about school and grades. This in itself is not alarming enough to attract attention, but what does matter is that they distract other people in the class, who actually do care about their grades and education, and overall pandemonium. A situation like this should not ever happen. Taxpayers and the government put a lot of money towards education in hopes that the younger generation will be able to succeed the current government with enough knowledge to not drive it into an iceberg and sink it.

            No matter how much a school or parent tries, nobody except for the person in question is able to force him or her to learn. Thus, a large portion of the budget is wasted on these people who do not care or do not even try in classes. In a multitude of my classes, I have seen people consistently not turning in homework, and though the teacher tries his or her best to have them work on it, it usually does not work. These people just do not want to learn, and so any further resource trying to make them try would just be futile.

            In order to provide better education for the ones who do enjoy learning, school after elementary school should be optional instead of mandatory. Why waste resources on the ones who do not want to learn, when you can spend the money on people who do? Many people skip school either way, but if school becomes optional, then tracking them down will not be a tax on resources and wasting taxpaying money, where instead can go to providing more challenging courses or rewards for the academically proficient students.

            Some may disagree with this argument because it would ruin our country by reducing literacy rates, but like I stated earlier, people who do not want to learn will not learn it if we continuously present it to them. It does not take much education to complete menial but necessary tasks. In fact, though we put more and more money towards education, the literacy rate has not changed according to this Huffington Post article.

            Many “literate” adults have only a basic education, or an elementary education, so elementary schools should still be in effect. Therefore, school should be optional from middle school and onward, because many people decide whether or not their education is worth anything to them.

Too Bad Kermit Doesn't Have This

            These ants are extremely aggressive and territorial and bites and injects venom in anything that comes near their nest. This sounds like some people, but they are really ants. This makes it extremely difficult to infiltrate, because if you have people defending you, would you really want a bunch of placid looking ants or would you rather have the most ferocious and aggressive ants that would bite anyone who just looked at you the wrong way. Obviously the second choice. Now this is what this frog did in this article, it uses the ants’ hideout as his own, whether it is to hide from the sun or hide from predators, because, like I said, it is extremely difficult to get in.

            These frogs apparently leak a bit of chemicals which apparently stops the ants from attacking the frog. I am not too sure how or why it does that, because the article does not explain it, but it should be along the lines of a drug dealer. The frog provides some good smelling pheromones and so the ants let it stay there for a while as payment for the drug they receive. The only problem I find here is that they do not live in Colorado, and so it would be illegal. That was a joke by the way, and I really have no opinion on it, because if people want to go home and blaze it, it really has no effect on me whatsoever, unless they are my teacher, then I might be slightly bothered.

            I only found this interesting because it seems like the ants know exactly what they are doing and seem completely fine, just instead of biting, they just swarm all over the frog and want to take in as much as they can. A video of this is also attached to the link above. If only this could be used for a utilitarian purpose rather than it just entertaining kids like me. It shows a very important social concept of course. Even the meanest, most feisty people will accept someone if it means that they have all the right requirements. If only it were this easy in real life.

            The one thing I wondered after this was that, since these frogs produced the chemicals from inside their body and not their food, how long would it take, if the frog was killed and left inside an anthill, for the ants to devour the frog, if it would ever? If it does, it would show another social concept, if you buy your friends kids, chances are, they will backstab you once your money runs out.