RE: Japanese Technology

"The United States has been looking forward and looking to using Japanese technology." -Andrew Fan

Kyoto

This quote reminds me of how Japan has the coolest technology known to human kind.  I don't even know where half of  their ideas come from.  Hating the pitching machine for hitting you too many times with baseballs?  Well, the Japanese has invented a machine in where the ball floats for you to hit it.  This technology is efficient because you can hit at a wide angle, which allows you to practice your technique.  It also moves the ball a little bit, so you have to actually concentrate to hit the ball.  The only downside of this technology is that you're not training your reflexes, as with a normal pitching machine.  However, the technology is mostly beneficial and makes a great practice for technique.



Another technology, which is not as practical, is a flying robot ball.  While you may think it's like one of those RC helicopters that you can get for $30, this thing actually costs about $1,000.   The reason for that, is that is can reach up to 40 miles per hour.  That's crazy!  Also, the controls and movement are very smooth (as seen in the video below).  The military created this technology, so that it can be used for urban reconnaissance and infiltration.  The machine has a single propeller and eight wings, and its spherical body reduces the effects of wind.  A surprising fact about the machine is that the parts are mostly from an electronics district in Akihabara, one of Japan's most famous electronics city.
Japan is one of today's most technologically advanced countries in the world.  Although their ideas seem a bit weird (I mean that in the nicest way possible), they actually improve the lives of many.  If I could choose an item from anywhere in the world, it'd probably be from Japan, just because of the huge variety and effectiveness of the technology there.

FREE: Global Warming?

"Severe seasonal melting has reduced ice floes, floating chunk of ice, in the Arctic Ocean to the thinnest on record, according to researchers."

First of all what are floes? Floes are floating ice, formed in a large sheet on the surface of a body of water. According to the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, the old, thick sea ice has decreased immensely. They are now replaced with floes formed only a year ago, whose average thickness is now 90 centimeters. Now, the frozen sea ice melting can have a very damaging effect on the ecosystem. Algae, trapped in the ice, are released back into the sea, causing contamination. Also, the ice is freshwater, so as it melts, to disturbs the balance between salt and fresh water. The scientists believe that global is the main, in terms of the ice melting. The natural cycle that's supposed occur runs like this: The sun sends its rays to the Earth. From there, the white ice deflects most of the rays off its surface, reducing the temperature that it absorbs. However, as the water around it is dark, it is able to absorb more heat, therefore slowly melting the ice. With global warming in the factor, the sea absorbs more heat, which melts the ice at a faster rate, which reduces the surface area that can deflect back the suns ray, and the cycle keeps going on.


I am refuting the statement that the ice will all melt away, and the human race is doomed, unless we are doing something about it. First of all, nature and the earth have always achieved harmony. Who are we to disrupt the cycle of this Earth? Repeated cooling and melting have always been in effect. The Ice Age is when the Earth is cooling down, and the period we are in, is just warming up. Pretty soon, the weather is going to get cold and the ice will return, with even more force. As stated above, the Earth and nature will always be in harmony. An example of this is when the ice melts. After it melts, it is released to the atmosphere right? If it melts more, then there would be more water vapor in the atmosphere, which means more clouds. Then, the clouds also act as a deflector, reducing the amount of sun rays hitting the ice. The ice will recover and the cycle keeps repeating. With all these points, I'm not trying to say we shouldn't so anything about it. In fact, supporting the environment will make it a better place for all of us. I just want people informed, so they can make better decisions for themselves.

CE: There is no such thing as a good tax.

"California and other states could move ahead with making online retailers such as Amazon collect and remit sales taxes even if the companies don't have physical presences in those states, under a new bipartisan bill co-authored by a Bay Area House member."

 Okay...  Now the government is REALLY in for it.   Why change a system, if it works?  Seriously, the government has to stop effing around with the taxes and start doing something about the economic situation in the US of A.  There have been recent activities going on, including the Wall Street Protest, which are trying to get the government to straighten out their economy.  I don't blame them, when a service's quality degrades because of the government; they should be the only ones to be revolting against.  If we don't so something about it right now, pretty soon they'll be taxing the very air we're breathing in.  Amazon is a unique and great place for companies and customers.  They provide an easy, accessible website for people that just don't have the time or resources to go out and find them in stores.  Some of the items listed might not even be in the country that they live in.  Amazon isn't damaging the profits of companies; the government just wants a slice of the pie.

The government shouldn't be even able to tax Amazon, since their method of transaction isn't physical, but they're going to try anyways.  I imagine if they're going to pass the bill, there are going to be very upset customers and employees alike.  This has led me to believe that either the government is struggling with money issues, or that they're just plain greedy.  Both of those reasons might be true to a certain extent.  Also, weren't taxes made to help the government provide for the needs of society?  In today's world, and even in ancient times, there are many corruptions within the political aspect of the country.  It is within our power to rebel and claim our opinions within these matters.

BC: Death...

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." -Steve Jobs, in a 2005 speech

This advice, in my opinion, is completely and utterly useless.  Just think about it, if you lived like each day was your last, you'd only get so far.  Think of the expenses, the time you're taking up.  It's ridiculously inefficient.  I'll give you a scenario:  Everyday, I will just be staying at home.  I'll order all the things I want, a 52-inch TV, the best computer system, a new car.  Pretty soon, I will die, but only because of the events that occurred, due to thinking I was going to die.  If you know you're going to die this very day, you might as well do everything you can to minimize the impact of your death to the community.  It may sound cruel, but death happens, it's unavoidable.

I also disagree with Steve Job's speech.  First of all, remembering that you would be dead help you with big choices?  I don't think you should be thinking about death, when faced with big choices.  You should think on how the big chance would have a positive or negative effect on your life, and decide based on that.  Secondly, stripping of all external expectations leads to only one thing, failure.  Having no expectations, makes you feel like you don't have to do anything.  That can only end up in a negative impact.  If you throw away all fear of embarrassment, or failure, then you wouldn't be able to improve upon yourself.  Remembering that I am going to die is the best way I know to FALL in the trap of thinking I have something to lose.  I am literally losing my whole life; my achievements, my failures, and my joys.  I think what Steve is trying to say, is that if you're going to die, do it anyways, however there are situations where that logic does not apply.  What if you could harm someone with what you're doing?  What if it has a degrading effect on others around you?  In my experience, trying to forget that something bad is going to happen generally helps to alleviate the stress and therefore reduces your chances of making a mistake in the big choices in life.


 People are always trying to view death as an important event, but in reality, everything dies.  Nothing can live forever, not even the hardiest of diamonds or the brightest of stars.  Everything has a beginning, therefore an end.  I know things like funeral and burials are necessities, and I agree, but people shouldn't be thinking about death.  They should be think about what lies beyond death, like the future of their grandchildren, or the future of their company.  They should be glad that they have lived an enjoyable life, and if not, then it is only their own fault for not doing anything about it.  For the people born to die, I know it's hard accepting, but you have to get over the fact of death if you want to enjoy every lasting moment of your life.  It's really sad when people throw away all they have, just because they're going to die.  At the end of the day, it's better to just forget reality, and live on, in your dreams.

FREE: >:O

It does what it says.

Rage, a recent ID Software and Bethesda game, sucks.  Now, I don't mean the gameplay sucks, nor the graphics suck, or even the story sucks.  I mean the technical aspect of the game sucks.  Enough with the sucking, Rage is released with a SHIT-ton of graphical glitches, bugs, and poor optimization.  In fact, it's not even playable in the state it is right now.  Although it is using a new game engine, the id Tech 5, that's no excuse to release this game in an unplayable manner.  There have been many reports of problems with the game, but I'm only going to cover a portion of them.

Such detailed settings!

The first is the video settings menu.  Look at it.  What do you see?  Like, 4 options?  Seriously, I know id is trying to implement a system where the game automatically sets the setting for you, for optimum frame rates, but give the users a choice.  If we can't even fix our problems in the setting menu, how can we fix it outside of it?

Madness!

Is this how the game is supposed to look like?  For people telling me to install new video drivers, yes I did.  I also installed the hotfix released from AMD, my video card manufacturer, and it still did not help at all, let alone fix my problem.  This jumbled up world is all I got from it.

Whoa, I can see!

Another prominent problem in the game, that has been pestering everyone that has been playing, is the new "megatexture" implementation.  Supposedly, Rage has very big texture sizes.  If you were to keep them loaded in the game, it would require tremendous graphical and computing power.  That's why, whenever you are not looking at the world, the game de-texturizes any unseen textures.  The problem with that, is it results in the screenshot above.  The computer cannot instantaneously load and de-texturize fast enough, producing a blurry world.  Why would they implement this? No idea, though this is the first game to utilize the id Teach 5 engine.

I, for one, am not saying this game is bad, in terms of gameplay.  I'm "raging" on the fact that the company should've produced a game that can actually play smoothly and with minor errors.  Why should consumers pay for the game, then be left with an unplayable game?  Hopefully there will be a patch to resolve all these errors, but until then, do not get this game.

RE: Technically...

"When I was little, I used to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and other things parents tell 

 their children." -Andrew Fan 

I guess I'm a little bit different then.  Since I was old enough to comprehend words, I never believed in the stories of Tooth Fairies or Santa Claus.  I actually thought about the stories and how they would work out.  For example, in the story of Santa Claus, he's supposed to deliver presents to every child in the world, in one night.  Assuming a night means 12 hours, he would never make it around the earth because they earth's circumference is about 26,000 miles.  The record time set for a non-stop around the world flight was in a military B-52 in 1980 at 42 hours 23 minutes.  It would take him at least the speed of 2166 miles per hour to make it around the world, excluding the time it takes for him to actually get the presents under the Christmas Tree without being noticed.  Note that this is the Earth's circumference, as it is in a linear line.  To factor in traveling to every country, state, and city, makes it nearly impossible.


The Easter Bunny, however, may be possible in the near future.  Today's technology allows us to peek in the world that shapes all living things.  What I'm talking about is DNA, and it's no gimmick.  We can already change the colors of a living animal, clone them, and even biologically engineer them to be resistant to disease.  With further improvements in modifying DNA, we could possibly take the egg of a bunny.  Then, we could extract its DNA, code for it to produce multi-colored eggs, and then reinsert them.  It may be ethically incorrect in the eyes of animal lovers, but in reality, money is power, and if they decide to engineer one, they will. 


I think being a realist attributes to the disbelief in stories.  I'm always looking for any errors that might not make sense in the real world.  This can be both beneficial or hindering.  It makes for writing a realistic-fiction book easier, but writing fantasy novels more difficult.  In this case, I believe, although the stories are not real, you should continue to enjoy the spirit and culture passed down for many generations.  Happy (Pre)Columbus Day!

CE: AHHH THE END OF THE WORLD!

Breaking news today, Thailand has been hit by the worst monsoon in 50 years!  More than 2 million people have been affected in what is known as the worst monsoon season in Thailand.  Everyone has been evacuated from the vincinity, especially the people near rivers and dykes.  Now, there has been many natural disasters occuring this year, including Hurricane Irene, typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, and dead fish appearing in all parts around the world.

This leads me to believe that something is definitely going on.  There has been many natural disasters before, but somehow, I feel this year is different.  First, the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan were enormous, with a 8.9 magnitude earthquake.  This disaster caused the shutdown of nuclear power plants, as well as some manufacturing factories as well.  It is pretty like for earthquakes to occur in Japan though, since it's located  near three tectonic plates. Secondly, Hurricane Irene devasted the East coast, causing the shutdown of the New York subway and many other areas.  There have been many reports on the appearance of dead fish as well.  At King Harbor in Redondo Beach, millions of dead fish, including anchovies, sardines and mackerel were floating lifeless.

 

Another phenomenon is the occurrence of birds falling out of the sky, although National Geographic has explained it already.  It says that the loud noises and human-built structures interfere with the birds ability to fly correctly.  The loud noises scare the birds and disorients them, while the human structures block their flight path, and creates a possible hazard for them.

The many events happening this year troubles me.  I don't believe in the "2012-end-of-the-world" thing, but I do believe in science, and so far, it's been saying that the world is starting to change dramatically.  For better, or for worse.

But mostly for the worst.