NDAA

Obama’s Signing of NDAA           
      On December 31, 2011, Obama once again signed the highly-controversial NDAA, or the National Defense Authorization Act, into law, as presidents always have done for the past 48 years. Despite Obama and the government claiming the NDAA is beneficial to the public by destroying terrorists and rooting out possible terrorists, the NDAA has been receiving high vitriol from the public and some other major news sources, such as www.guardian.co.uk and www.forbes.com. The NDAA should not have been signed into the law again; as well as the high public opposition to its signing, the NDAA takes away civil liberties by expanding its war on terrorism. The government, Obama included, does not realize terrorism is used to stir overreaction in its targets; they have effectively fallen to this tactic, and to prevent even more terrorism, our privacies would become further and further disturbed. Also, if any person in the United States is accused of being a terrorist, he/she can be detained, not granted the right to trial, and even tortured; seeinindefinitely g the amount of innocent people serving time in jails and even in Guantanamo Bay (150 out of 520 were said to be innocent), an innocent person could easily suffer this dreaded consequence. The right to indefinitely detain, not give right to hold trial, and even torture gives the president dictatorial powers; although Obama has promised not to use the above stated powers, he still has them in his grip. The NDAA, lastly, denies the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendments, which are or very possibly all excluded to the “possible” domestic or USA terrorist. As eviscerating the NDAA may be to public rights, it makes sure the military gets fair paychecks and helps prevent sexual harassment of female military personnel. Instead of listening mainly to politicians and military, Obama and the government should look at how much the public disapproves of the NDAA, and repeal it before any damage is caused.

Idk

help

Banning GMO Food (Cont'd)

Scientists claim GMO food will solve world’s persisting problem of starvation and hunger, be more nutritious, tastier, hardier than natural food, economically and environmentally friendly since GMO food does not require pesticides. GMO food, which can be very well grown in massive proportions, can stave off world hunger and possibly lower the percentage; however, in reality, growing GMO food alone will be financially straining to farmers, possibly arouse new diseases, allergies, and bodily problems, and corrupt nature’s order by accidentally transferring their genes or resistances.

GMO food allows the world to produce food at a much faster rate, and slacks off stress of fending off bugs and disease from natural food. However, genetically modified food is currently leading to overall decrease of world population in an unsafe manner, unprecedented gene transfer to non-target species, and there is the high risk of reduced effectiveness of pesticides, as bugs get used to the modified food’s resistances.

Genetically Modified Food is slowly leading to the overall lowering of the international populace in an unjustified manner. According to naturalsociety.com, scientists tested all sorts of animals such as mice, pigs, cows, rats and buffalo to test this claim. As each of these animals were fed higher and higher concentrations of GMO foods such as corn, they all suffered the same outcome; infertility, frequent abortions, fewer amount of and much weaker offspring, and even death of some of the babies’ parents. In extreme cases, a few hamsters even had hair grown inside their mouths, mice testes grew smaller and their sperm count decreased, and pigs gave birth to bags of water. Due to the correlation of animal symptoms and humans related to food and disease over the years, GMO food and not just corn, is being linked to rising levels of human infant mortality, dropping sperm counts, and sterilization.

 As GMO foods become much more prevalent worldwide, there will be destructive gene transfer to non-target species. According to gmo-compass.org, the movement of genetic material between unrelated species, such as hornets and wheat crops, is called the horizontal gene transfer. This type of gene transfer is arduously hard to detect, and all GMO food crops are tainted with the ability to become much more sturdier and resilient. Currently, the rates of such gene transfer is extremely low (one out of a trillion) but if GMO foods are grown over a large area (which is predicted to happen) it would certainly happen and pose a grave threat. In fact, this feared event is already happening in France, where genetically modified food crops have been exchanging genes with nearby weeds making them stronger and hardier, which would probably make these pests much harder to get rid of than before.

Bugs, such as mosquitoes, will eventually gain resistance to the Genetically modified foods’ natural wards and become much harder to get rid of in late years. According to gmo-compass.org and holistic.com, BT is the most commonly used pesticide which is “naturally” produced inside such genetically modified food in a wide range, from corn, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables. Although the BT toxin is said to be “very specific” in which bugs to ward off, it still has a chance to harm non-targeted insects. There was research in 1999 in Arizona, which revealed insects would get used to BT tainted crops, such as cotton, would get resistant to them very quickly such as bollworms. The main problem was that these BT resistant worms could spread its resistance to other natural bollworms, rapidly expanding the population of bollworms of those who are inexorable to BT.

Overall, the world should ban GMO food since its cons outweigh its benefits by a large margin. If people continue to consume GMO food, which is happening in this exact moment, they will eventually lose the ability to be fertile, and the babies who are born from GMO food-consuming parents will be more susceptible to death. Like how mosquitoes became resistant to DDT, such pestering bugs will become resistant to the GMO foods’ resistances and might pose a greater harm to people later on. GMO foods, due to their altered gene structure, have a chance to pass on their genes toward non-target species, which cannot be fixed. If GMO foods were banned, people would be able to consume food that is naturally grown, and causes little harm compared to those who consume GMO foods. In my opinion, people should have healthy, natural food rather than genetically modified food which have countless amounts of risks.

Banning GMO Food

No-fly zone over Libya

    French President Nicholas Sarkozy passed the no-fly zone over Libya in order to prevent any more heavy-air bombings and raids on the rebels (the entire Libyan population in general). He also proclaimed that the French Planes are already flying over Libya to halt any heavy-ground or air assault, including tanks, half-tracks, and other ground vehicles. Muammar Gaddafi said that he passed a ceasefire to "stop all ongoing fights in the country" and even opened the country to the international community. However, it is said that the war is still fresh and going in many parts of the country; the Libyan Army is camped outside of 35 miles outside of Benghazi. To counter the month of straight-on victories by the rebels, Gaddafi had started to use heavily artillery and bombing raids in order to quickly drive out the opposition, which has anti-aircraft guns, but most don't even know how to use a gun.


    While Europe is supporting the no-fly zone, Barack Obama had declined the notion of the Act. According to him, the no-fly zone would be "meaningless", as it would require an extensively large air force to patrol the Libyan air. It would require hundreds of jets, as well as fuel tanks, surveillance systems, and other transportation systems in order to sustain them. Also, the United States is further away from Europe; which is another detriment. Even so, America did agree that it would take some form of military action if the dictator continued the war. As U.S. Air Force General Norman Schwartz said, it would "upwards of a week" to implement a no-fly zone if the government decided to apply it. England and France are all for the matter, but Germany and Russia has decided to stay out of the issue. So far  Benghazi, and other preiviously-rebel held cities (Misrata) are being shelled once again, despite Gaddafi's declaration of a "ceasefire".   Currently, Europe is seeing most of the action in helping the Libyan opposition, while America is backstage (Humanitarian Aid would be America's greatest asset, instead of military force).

   Libya, on the contrary, has an extensively large aircraft force which could make it difficult for France (and possibly other countries) to continue strongholding the no-fly zone. With  thousands of Libyans running away to Egypt and even Tunisia, America should really step it up and stop the madman Gaddafi from continuing to rampage his own country.


*By now, I am wondering why Gaddafi does not step down. Continuing to stubbornly keep his "authority" is only going to put Libya in a deeper hole.

The Changing Future

There are many new, life-changing laws, decrees, and practices that would affect all of us. This includes agricultural innovations, technology, and even slowing/halting the process of global warming by Geo engineering. However, the world is growing quickly and the annual crop yields are coming shorter and shorter by the year. The First Green Revolution had been started in the 1920s-1930s by the introduction of synthetic fertilizer made primarily of fossil fuels. This fertilizer made the soil much more productive, and even made some parts of the land arable; However, The Green Revolution required billions of raw materials, which included fossil fuels (the most important ingredient), sulfur, iron, magnesium, copper and zinc. However, the 2nd Green Revolution js focusing on the genetic mutation of plants to create hardier, immunized-against-diseases, faster-growing crops. Instead, the cost for this new Agricultural Age would require billions of tons of raw data. This Second Green Revolution would require an alliance between organic-farmers (Farmers who only want to grow food organically, even without fertilizer) and genetic scientists.

An example of this was the recent ongoing process of rice immunization of xanthamonas, a bacteria that decimated rice harvests all over Asia. As scientists continue their work on immunizing rice against Xanthamonas, they also believes bananas (which are being obliterated by a disease in East Africa) would also be able to have full immunity against Xanthamonas, as most edible bananas were cloned and therefore shared the same genes (which makes them very susceptible to plagues and blights). As the First Green Revolution demanded, and used up over a billion ton of resources (literally), genetic scientists plans to reduce the usage of fertilizers and increase the crops' "dependencies" on phosphorus (as it is found on the topsoil), and make it roots grow deeper and further to promote faster and even larger crop growth. The Green Revolution had its consequences: Agricultural runoff, usually poisonous, contaminated some freshwater supplies and created "dead zones" around oceans where that region was unusable. As well as the enormous cost of natural elements, scientists are also fighting countless nature activists who  resist the genetically-enhanced crops. In turn, the activists are accused of imperialism and extreme greed, and vague of the current world situation.However, no matter how much crops can be enhanced, they must be harvested, weeded, watered, and grown.

Water will grow to be a continuous, nagging problem in agricultural advances as well as pessimistic farmers who believe there is a limit to the amount of grown food, and the scientists should not go too far in their quest to stop hunger. Even Arpa-E, who sends grants to colleges and groups in order a spark a new Energy Revolution in 20 years, could get involved in this in order to speed up the process.

In addition, most organic farmers believe that genetically enhancing the soil or the crops would cause harm to the consumers and even the environment around them. Genetic scientists have deconstructed the genetic code which gives the rice immunity to Xanthomonas, which happens to be Xa21-106/TP309. This "hardened" rice crop had been cultivated by Pamela Ronald, but the rice had strangely not been (and still is not) accepted by the Chinese Department of Agriculture. 

Egypt's New Leader?

  Egypt, with its ruthless dictator Hosni Mubarak retreated to his mansion, now must choose a leader to lead the turbulent country of nearly 80 million toward democracy. At this moment, the military is holding most of the power Mubarak once had, and currently they have disassembled the Parliament and are following the demands of the populace. For 18 days, the nobel peace-prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei arrived in Egypt the fuel the flames of rebellion and inspired them to continue fighting for democracy and freedom. But now Mubarak is gone, the government is dissolved, and the army is holding power. Who will take the lead of Egypt?

Mohamed ElBaradei, Omar Suleiman, and even  Wael Ghonim, who has gained nationwide (Egypt-wise) popularity and it is reported that he was one of the main fuel-ers of the rebellion. Even though he was a Nobel Peace-Prize bearer, Mohamed ElBaradei was, and still is the last possible candidate for the new presidential seat. He inspired the Egyptians to continue the fight, but he never actively led them from the day he was injured and treated in a nearby mosque. Ghonim in contrast,   set up the Facebook page and was one of the administrators of "We Are All Khaled Said" Facebook page, which was set up to commemorate a 28-year-old youth who was brutally beaten to death on June 6, 2010. He was taken by the police on 1/27 and wasn't tortured, but was interrogated for 2 weeks regarding the rising dissent and most importantly, why he created the page. He also noted how blocking FaceBook showed a sign that the Egyptian government actually feared something, as it had been the very gathering place of the resistance movement, which empowered the protestors to continue. It also showed how even the most controlling, authoritarian governments cannot control ever single aspect of life.


Recently, ElBaradei proclaimed that he did not wish to run for presidency, but he only wished to see Egypt become a democratic country and elect a leader "in his 40s - 50s".
Now for Omar Suleiman, who is quite the opposite of Mubarak and is in favor of many Israelis, Egyptians, and even the U.S. government. He was anti - Islamist, constantly arrested muslim activists,   and fueled Egypt's efforts to crush Hamas by demolishing the tunnels that have functioned as a smuggling conduit for both weapons and foodstuffs into Gaza. However, some people think he did this to gain the sentiments of the people, and moreover, he resisted Mubarak leaving office so quickly, but wanted him to rule until the end of the term. This was to allow a steady change into democracy, as a sudden, major change in the government could bring chaos.


Which person, Omar Suleiman(Appreciated by Egyptians, Israelis, and Americans), or Wael Ghonim (who was a major influence along with ElBaradei to the Movement by creating the FaceBook page) would become Egypt's next president?

Taco Bell Situation

UPDATED CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT STATEMENT

January 26, 2011

 

 

http://www.tacobell.com/menu/why-pay-more



"The lawsuit is bogus and filled with completely inaccurate facts. Our beef is 100% USDA inspected, just like the quality beef you would buy in a supermarket and prepare in your home. It then is slow-cooked and simmered with proprietary seasonings and spices to provide Taco Bell's signature taste and texture. Our seasoned beef recipe contains 88% quality USDA-inspected beef and 12% seasonings, spices, water and other ingredients that provide taste, texture and moisture. The lawyers got their facts wrong. We take this attack on our quality very seriously and plan to take legal action against them for making false statements about our products. There is no basis in fact or reality for this suit and we will vigorously defend the quality of our products from frivolous and misleading claims such as this." ... says Greg Creed.


Would Taco Bell actually use up to 88% REAL beef? The chain serves more than 2 billion customers each year, and moreover a pound of beef ranges from 2.49 - 3 dollars. With the demand for beef (and there fore its price) goes up annually, if Taco Bell used real meat in every single burrito, taco, and other condiments that they made, they would not have $1.92 billion in Revenue. Seeing how McDonalds use up to 560 million pounds of beef anually along with 58 million customers DAILY (which adds up to 21170000000 million, or about 2 trillion customers per year, and it is still rising), Taco Bell's profit yearly is quite meager compared to McDonald's. Using about 40% real beef would help Taco Bell financially, and with great advantages. The common person would not detect Fungus, soy, or even wheat gluten pressed in and combined with the meat to form a "100% Real Beef" substance. In general, I believe Taco Bell is using fake meat to save money, as the food chain is still marginally smaller than most major food companies (McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King). KFC and Taco Bell are fast-food chains which are still growing (with KFC being the smallest). In fact, many people still speculate KFC uses fake chicken, or using chicken meat that has received the lowest quality care, treatment, feed, and overall life quality.

Do you think Taco Bell meat is real or fake?

Droid X vs. Samsung Fascinate

Droid X and Samsung Fascinate are both fantastic phones. the Droid Series all consist of excellent touch phones, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Series. It has been quite some time since both phones were released. In 2010, Droid and Apple have both been lagging behind, as they did not even make it to the Top 5 Best-Selling CellPhone Brands of 2010 (Which were:   Nokia,  Samsung, LG,  BlackBerry, and Sony Ericsson). The Samsung Galaxy Phones have become wildly popular, while the Droid and Apple are still in close quarters.
It is not surprising that BlackBerry got ahead of Droid this year, as BlackBerries are widely used as comfortable-to-use business phones.


(Droid X vs. Samsung Fascinate) Battery Life:

The Fascinate's 1500 mAH Battery allows it approximately 392 minutes for nonestop talking while the Droid X's 1540 mAH Battery allows it about 480 minutes of nonestop talk time. Both phones are best used for people who frequently call, but do not talk long (Droid X), and others who do not call often but talk for many hours (Samsung Fascinate). The typical businessman will choose Droid X, while a teen or college student might choose Samsung Fascinate.

Storage:

The Droid X comes with 8GB internal memory and 16GB (microSD card). The Samsung Fascinate has a meager 2GB internal memory and 16GB  (microSD card). Both phones come with a 30 GB external memory. Leaving the MicroSD cards aside, the Droid X can support 40 GB memory while the Samsung Fascinate can support max. 34 GB.

Speed:

Both have the Cortex ARM A8 Processor. The Processors both provide the same speed, but the Chips each phone is equipped with makes a difference. Samsung Fascinate carries its own so-called Hummingbird Chip with 1 GHz, while Droid X contains the OMAP Chip from Texas Instruments also with 1 GHz. The GHz's may be the same, but the Fascinate's ability of stream videos and support 3D much better than most Android Phones out in the market. The FPS difference on the YouTube benchmark tests between these two were almost 13 FPS.... so the Fascinate dominates the Droid X in terms of 3D, media, and speed.

(Rear) Camera:

A typical Droid phone will always have the best camera, which could even been seen between the Droid X and iPhone 4, where iPhone 4 won quite narrowly. The Fascinate's 5 MP, single LED cannot compete with the Droid X's 8 MP dual-LED camera. The Droid X's only roadblock to fully besting the Fascinate regarding Camera is the video quality. An average Fascinate's video streaming will be 6 FPS higher than a normal Droid X's.


Connection:

Both phones work very well with Verizon's 3G network, but Droid X takes full advantage of this feature. Thanks to its OMAP chip, it can act as a Wi-Fi hotspot and transmit the 3G network up to five (or even more, which is rare) wireless connected devices. This function is not free at the cost of $20/month, but this function alone gives it an edge over Fascinate.


Screen:

LCD 4.3-inch screen on the Droid X and the 4 inch OLED panel on the Samsung Fascinate definitely is quite a match. The Super OLED screen is great when you are in the dark, but on a typical summer day, it tends to blur a bit and tends to fade out due to the strong sun. The Droid X's LCD screen works fine in any environment as it is "sun-shy". Its slightly bigger than the Fascinate as well, with 480x 860 compared to 480x800. The Droid X definitely wins this one.


So which phone would you choose? I would go alone with the Droid X, as it has a much better speed, screen, acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot, act as a great camera, and its longer Battery Life and Storage is ideal for the typical student who downloads many songs and apps.

iPhone 4 vs Droid X (Comparison)

Both iPhone 4 and Droid X are very refined, high quality touch phones. The iPhone 4 have some disadvantages over the Droid X in terms of battery life and Flash (The biggest flaw on any Apple mobile device). The speed of the iPhone 4, and its superb video and audio conferencing ability bested the Droid X, but barely. While the Droid X has the 8 MP Camera, iPhone 4 has geotagging and tap-to-focus, which allows the user to clarify the picture, such as reducing or increasing the amount of light in it. One important thing most iPhone devices miss out (iPad, iPhone 3g, 3gs, and 4) is to act as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. Also, holding the iPhone 4 a certain way suddenly cuts down the Wi-Fi from 5 bars to 2, or sometimes even slower.

As for the apps, Apple has more apps than any other phone/ phone company will have. However, the Apple app market restricts its customers from "outside sources", which include getting apps from unauthorized people. The Android Market has about 4x less apps, but it legalizes dealings with other "unauthorized" users who have created their own apps. iPhone 4 only comes with 16 or 32 GB Storage, but does not have any expendable storage, while Droid X comes with a MicroSD 16 GB external storage along with the meager 8 GB internal storage it comes along with. The MicroSD also can be bought with 32 GB storage, which boosts the Droid X's total internal and external storage to 40 GB.

iPhone 4 has the edge in speed, front-facing video conferencing camera, and app variety in the "legalized" market. However, the Droid X can harvest up to 8 GB more internal-and-external memory, support a better camera (Dual LED, 8 MP), and act as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Seeing these specs, I would go with the Droid X. What would YOU go with?

iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S ---> Comparison

           

          iPhone 4 is one of the best phones out in the market right now, along with Evo 4g (It is quite surprising how sometimes, the 4g network in Evo is slower than the Wi-Fi in the iPhone 4), Samsung Galaxy Series Phones, and the Motorola Droids. Even though the  "elite " Droid phones (with Android), such as Droid X and Droid 2 are still quite competitive in the market, others phones such as T-mobile MyTouch 4g and LG Optimus (speed and economic-wise) have gone up ahead. In fact, the Droid Touch Phones did not even go into the top 5 "Best Phones of 2010".



Galaxy S comes with Android 2.1 Eclair with the Samsung TouchWiz 3.0 UI and is supposed to get the Android 2.2 Froyo update soon. The iPhone 4 comes with the latest version of the iPhone OS - iOS4. The iOS platform has more than 225,000 applications in the App Store while the Android Market has around 68,000 applications. While the iPhone Appstore is restricted, the Android Market is open. Android 2.2 will also have Flash support. The Galaxy S comes with the Swype text input system built into the device which

is a lot easier than typing virtual keys ( like the BlackBerry Storm 2 "press" screen). The Android Market is like a "jailbroken" iPhone appstore, as you can get apps that are not currently uploaded into the app store.

 

Regarding the design and size, the iPhone 4 has a clean, elegant design and the Galaxy S has a stylish, minimal design too. The Galaxy S is considerably bigger than the iPhone 4. Both are extremely slim and have superb build qualities. The iPhone 4 has a beautiful 3.5 inch retina display with a resolution of 640 x 960 pixels, while the Samsung Galaxy S has a brilliant 4 inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Both the displays are easily among the best, with the iPhone 4 marginally leading the way in terms of display quality and the Galaxy S winning the size battle. Both Phones have a 1 GHz and 512 MB RAM restriction. Galaxy S has 8/16 internal memory with a 32GB microSD card. while the iPhone 4 can come in either 32 or 16GB. All Galaxy Phones have a Super AMOLED screen (which is one reason for the heavy price tags), and especially on the Samsung Galaxy Epic 4g, the Super AMOLED is the best and most polished. In fact, the epic 4g was the 1st on the top 5 2010 phones on CNET.

Both the iPhone 4 and the Galaxy S are closely matched in the multimedia category. The Galaxy S has a great 5 MP camera with a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. It also has features like autofocus, geotagging, touch focus, face detection, and smile detection. The iPhone 4 has an 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash which can capture images at a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels too. Both of them take excellent shots but the iPhone has a large image sensor which produces more "finely-grained" images than the Galaxy S's. Both the Galaxy S and the iPhone 4 can record 720p videos at 30 FPS. The iPhone 4 also comes with a front facing secondary camera which lets you make video calls using Facetime; while the the Galaxy S doesn't have a secondary camera, as video chat is not on most of the Galaxy Phones. The iPhone 4 clearly has the upper hand when it comes to camera and video recording.

The iPhone 4 beats down the Galaxy S in multimedia, but sadly the Galaxy S allows itself to act as a Wi-Fi mobile hotspot while the iPhone 4 does not have this feature. HSDPA, A2DP, GPRS etc. are all on both phones. Also, if an iPhone 4 is askance or held in a certain position, its Wi-Fi will suddenly degrade, which gives the Galaxy S an edge in network.

Personally, both phones are extremely advanced and it would be very hard to decide which one anyone would choose without looking at its capabilities first. iPhone 4 has better multimedia capabilities, while Galaxy S is more of a business phone, as its networking options vary greatly, and function much more flawlessly than iPhone 4. I would go with the Galaxy S, as an ardent schooler, I would definitely need the strong, stable Wi-Fi to connect to my contacts, etc etc.

 

 

Galaxy Tab vs. iPad

  The Android vs. Apple battle for supremacy has occurred over phones, such as Motorola Droid X, HTC Evo 4g, and iPhone 3g and 4. But now, it has also come down to the land of Tablets. There have been many not-so-good "imitations" of iPad, but me and most likely thousands of others probably agree Samsung Galaxy Tab is the real match.

 Looking at the "speed" specs, it seems Samsung Galaxy Tab races ahead the Apple iPad. For example, The Galaxy Tab has twice as much RAM (512 MB), and has Bluetooth/Phone function, and supports Flash (which is one huge problem Apple iPad and iPhone suffers from), and weighs less. True, iPad's internal storage allows twice as much the Galaxy Tab's, but it has no expendable storage unlike the Samsung Galaxy Tab which has 32 GB. Lastly, it has 3.2 rear and 1.2 front facing cameras for Video Chat and Taking Pictures.  Overall, the Galaxy Tab is like an enlarged phone,  which calling, camera functionality, and a greater variety of apps. (Samsung Tab allows non-Marketed Apps while iPad limits the user to just the Apple App Store). Just before I go, the GPS is on every Galaxy Tab unlike the iPad which only comes with on the 3G.  Personally, I think Samsung Galaxy Tab is better than the iPad, especially its great functionality as a "phone", camera, speed, storage capacity, and weight.


Update: The price for the Samsung Galaxy Tab is $499, making it affordable and being equally as expensive as the iPad, with the same specs and features on the list above.

Droid Pro (Reviews)

Droid Pro - Motorola
Droid Incredible - HTC

Camera Resolution: 5 megapixels
Flash: Dual LED
(Auto Focus, Digital Zoom)
Video Capture Resolution: 720x480 (30 FPS)
Memory/ Processor Speed: 512 MB (2048 MB ROM) / 1000 MHz

Built in Memory: 1024 MB
OS: Android 2.2
QWERTY Keyboard, Capacitative TouchScreen
Bluetooth: 2.1
Wi-fi: (802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n)
HTML, Flash, MicroUSB, YouTube Player (All Supported and Fully Functioning).


By the looks and function, it is "A 'BlackBerry' for those who don't want a BlackBerry".
Blackberries are appreciated for their emailing messaging, syncing, outlook, enterprise,security and keyboard. However, the Droid Pro only has 3 of these things, such as emailing, messaging keyboard, and security (which is not as strong as the BlackBerry), , and its keyboard is harder to use as the "keys" (buttons on the keyboard) are quite miniscule and it misses a trackball or trackpad which allows the user to comfortably move the mouse around or select apps, choices, etc. Even so, it has very good potential, as it has much more Widgets and Apps than the average BlackBerry, and it would be preferred by business owners and workers. (Weather, stock marketing, and other related- widgets are more common for the Pro) However, the Droid Pro still lags behind heavy-business phones, such as Bold 9780 for T-Mobile, or the Blackberry Curve 9330 CDMA.

Its Battery Life, KeyBoard Ease-of-use, and Enterprising Abilities are all lagging behind the Blackberry (For the Droid Pro). However, its TouchScreen, World Roamer, and HotSpot Capability is quite decent, and the Pro will be a competitive match to the BlackBerry.

Motion Doctor, "Physical Therapy" - iPad App

  
   The Motion Doctor, a $14.99 App from the Blue What Web Solutions, is like having a physical, real therapist which carefully analyzes your body and helps you protect yourself against physical harm (the only difference is that it is virtual). This app was created by Desirea D.Caucci, a Pennsylvannia Doctor who wanted to find a "portable" way to help people avoid self-injury and other undesirable wounds and to maintain body shape.

The Motion Doctor has 60 videos (which are updated every once in a while) which are "embedded" or "baked" into the app so an internet connection is not required to watch them. Each video has a "routine", which shows text, imagery, and detailed steps for that specific category of body problem. For example, if you got a stiff neck, you'd go to the "cervical flexion and extension" routine and video. The routine would say "Hold each position three second and repeat these five times a day". The rational of the routine, described by the very creator, was to maintain full neck flexibility, and to keep it out of painful cramps.

The routines are shown in colums beside their videos, and each group of routines, or a routine alone could be favorited for quick location in the future. The "favoriting" only works with routines, NOT videos. Also, "favoriting" allows routines to be separated into different genres, such as Elbows and Hip and Knees.

Lastly, Motion Doctor provides all sort of routines, exercise suggestions, and videos for Basketball, Baseball, Swimming, Golf, Tennis, Jogging, computer work, and various others for the body, like chest and hips. However, the Motion Doctor is, and will never be intended as a substitute for a real, physical medical professional. Mr. Caucci even suggested 

"If you are experiencing any unusual pain, shortness of breath or any other unexpected response when performing any of these exercises, you should discontinue using this app and contact a medical professional,"

Escalating Artificial Intelligence

Fortunately, most robots aren't the complicated emotional beings that star in movies, and we're still pretty good at identifying android impostors. Even if you don't recognize the stilted robotic diction over the phone, they usually give themselves away when they can't understand a thing you're saying. But how long will it be before you have an entire conversation with a machine without realizing it?
This isn't just cocktail party chatter; it's the long-term goal of artificial intelligence research. Alan Turing, the man many identify as the father of AI, in 1950 defined an intelligent machine as one that could masquerade as a human. Even without having to talk or understand the spoken word, there isn't a machine that can pass the Turing Test. Truly humanlike intelligence has frustrated AI researchers because it involves two skills that machines are bad at: perceiving their environment and usefully incorporating past experiences into their knowledge base. Knowledge, for even the "smartest" robots and computers, cannot take prieviously learned facts to fuse into the information that is presently available to them. "Remembering" for computers, is like setting up back-up or restoring to a prievious date, but is nothing much more than that,Think, for a minute, about what it takes to recognize a can of soda sitting in your refrigerator. The photons bouncing off the scene in your refrigerator are recorded on your retina. The optic nerve translates the image into electrical signals and carries them to your brain. So far, so good for the machines. Digital cameras have long been able to capture photons and store them as transmittable electrical signals.

The next step, though, is a bridge too far for most robots. Your brain manages to pick out the can from the rest of the scene, even though every time you see a soda can, it looks a little bit different. Your brain has what researchers call an internal representation of a soda can, so even if the lighting is different or the background changes or the can is a slightly different size, you still recognize it. It takes an incredible amount of computing power, plus the ability to filter out extraneous details, to make this happen.

Windows Gets an ARM Twist

  Microsoft might give its mobile aspirations "a shot" by polishing and releasing a new Windows OS  to run on ARM chips. The New OS will be either the Windows 8 or the beefed-up, highly-tweaked Windows 7. Windows 8, which will have Face-Detecting Technology (Uses the computer camera to detect the user and log him in) or AKA My Computer Knows Me, might show its face as this OS is released. The ARM chips will be extensively be used in Mobile Devices such as Windows Mobile Phone (7). The ARM chips consume 30% less power than Intel or AMD chips.

The ARM will rarely be used in computers (as of now), and runs on Intel and AMD (mainly Intel) processors. The ARM will be modular, so if it is used in smaller, or thinner smartphones, unncessary parts of it could easily be removed. ARM has gone multicore and can easily support multiple, complex operating systems, according to Rob Enderle, as Tegra 2, an Nvidia graphics processing unit, was released. The Tegra 2 unit has a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, which has 1080p HD video- play back processor. Apparently, Microsoft is continuing to evolve ARM and will be widely used starting from mid or late 2011 in mobile devices.

One main reason Microsoft developed this was that the Windows Phone 7 "was too light" for the competition with Google and Apple. Google and Apple both have their own mobile OS's, such as (iOS) and (Google Chrome). If ARM proves to be successful, then Microsoft will be much more competitive with Apple and Google and even Android on terms of both mobile and PC innovations. Microsoft has had massive success with computer related Operating Systems, but has not gotten far into mobile OS's, until now.

    
  What you are seeing above is the new $35 ( 1500 rupees) Indian Tablet PC, introduced by Kapil Sibal, the minister of Human Resource Development in India. As one of the most innovative devices invented this year (in my opinion), the astoundingly low price, ease of transporting and using, and its specs could be even better than the iPad. The Linux based, prototype tablet computer, along with a touch screen, also comes with a Web Browser, Multimedia, Adobe Flash (can stream videos and load sites properly), PDF reader, WiFi, video - conferencing ability, and also, a 2 GB RAM (no hard disk or bluetooth YET) with a multitude of USB ports. The Indian Institute of Technology co - produced the motherboard for the tablet computer, and as the tablet PC goes into mass production later next year, its price might drop to $20 to even $10.

As it is just a prototype and still in development, Kapil Sibal and education expert Zubin Malhotra believe its full, final version can be equal or even better than an iPad or a normal laptop we American all use at home.
The Human Resource Development in India has started a development for a new, but more expensive (100 - 200 dollars), called the "OLPC tablet". Its hardware (which is beling developed) is called "X0 - 3".  Information about OLPC is very scant, and it is predicted it will be months or years before the OLPC, or even the "$35 tablet PC" is released.

Once again, thank you for reading this post, and feel free to tell me what you want me to blog about in the comments section!









   

Apple's Booming Stocks Makes it More Vulnerable to Revealing of its Secrets

  Apparently, the FBI arrest 4 people who were in an insider trade probe. The four people were hired by AMD, Flextronics, Dell, and TSMC. The Holy Grail for traders looking to game the system, however, were details about Apple’s plans via Flextronics, a contract equipment manufacturer. A Flextronics employee, Walter Shimoon, had the goods on Apple trade secrets through a contract manufacturing relationship. Flextronics supplied camera modules (for Apple's macbooks, iPhones).

The Flextronics Employee, Walter Shimoon, obtained the information:

The New (4g) iPhone will have 2 cameras.

Before the iPad was released, its code name was K48, and the unlucky employee who said "K48" out loud could get him fired. However, this threat didn't stop Shimoon from yapping this to other people.


In conclusion, the point of this is, that between Apple and Flextronics, there were lots of secrets and highly- confidential information that were passed between the 2 companies. For example, Apple informed Flextronics in 2009 about the development of the "iPad" tablet computer. To ensure that this information would not leak, its confidentiality was governed by a non - disclosure agreement executed between those two companies (Flextronics and Apple). 

Shimoon knew that he would get fired if Apple ever found out, and possibly go to jail, but he told various other anonymous people and Primary Global Research which detailed the sale forecasts of current Apple merchandise and the new 4g iPhone that would come out sometime mid-2011.


Apple's sales graph and their current status in the market:

Planet Made of Diamonds

Astronomers have recently discovered a planet 1200 light years away in the Constellation Centaurus, a planet made out of DIAMONDS. The mineral that is being doubled in scarcity each decade is as common as sand on this planet. The scientists believer the diamond - covered planet had once a diamond core that once shined as brightly as the sun. This is predicted to happen to the sun in seven billion years. Two billion years after its last wave of heat is given off, the sun could become a large, shining diamond that would stay in the center of the solar system (even though a formation of a black hole is slightly possible).

This planet is code named (Wasp-12b). Scientists have observed that the diamond littered planet has more carbon than oxygen, which would render normal humans unable to breath, or have an extreme difficulty breathing. As well as being trillions of miles away, the planet it nearly 2315 Celcius, which would make the actual excavation of the precious mineral near impossible.

Also, the planet is beaten "eaten away" by some unknown star the Hubble has detected, so the diamond-covered plant is estimated to last only 10 to 20 million years.




^^^^^^ The pic ---> The small, shiny white grains are diamonds. But this is just a professional artist's depiction of the planet, not an actual image.

AlienWare Mx15 Laptop (Dell)

Extreme Speed:   The New intel Core i7 920 XM allows the laptop to go overboard for more than 3.2 GHz, and with an 8 MB cache, it can pretty much run any game with equal to or more than 60 FPS, which includes some of the most graphic intensive games, such as Fallout or Cysis.

High Definition Screen and Design: The Specs and the price of the laptop also reflects its appearance. The keyboard can change colors by using the Alienware Command Center. Also, the curved, vented lid and edge of the laptop makes the Alienware Computer stand out even among the more stylish ones, such as HP Envy laptops.

Also Comes with  1 GB NVidia GeForce GTx 260M GPU which delievers 1080p or (1920 x 1080) resolution on the 15.8 screen.

Alienware Command Center: The Command Center is extremely flexible. It allows you to change the backlit Keyboard (The color), the speakers, the power button, and the Alienware Keyboard. Other than changing just the physical looks, the Command Center can be modified so it notifies you when a new email or message arrived.

Just One Last thing (I used the MX 11 before). This Alienware Laptop weights about 11 - 15 pounds. Even the prievous AlienWare Mx 11 weighed about 10 pounds for me. I didn't purchase the Mx 11, primarily because it was too bulky and it shouldn't really be considered a "laptop", since its unstable and would easily fall off your lap and break.

Overall, the AlienWare Mx 15 is absolutely beast, with its NVidia GeForce 260M and Intel Core i7 920 XM, making it one of the fastest and most powerful laptop in the market. According to customers, the Mx 15 easily runs some of the most graphically hardcore games, like Doom 4, MW 2 (for PC), and Crysis. The only most noticeable downsides is the weight and the price.

The Great Ball of Fire

A few months ago, in August, the Sun had two Coronal mass ejections, or simply put, massive firestorms which dispense great masses of charged particles into space. Every planet and rock in 100 million mile radius of the storm was affected. Thanks to the Solar Dynamics Observatory, other scientists noticed in great detail how the particles disturbed out magnetic field and causes great ripples across the atmosphere. (This only occurred to the side which faced the sun). These ripples were auroras, which were ripples of light that result in charged particles slamming against the upper atmosphere. One of the mass coronal ejections disbursed radiation level C, which was one of the highest levels of intensity, heat, and brightness that were recorded in the summer this year. More coronal mass ejections are expected the forecoming years, and especially 2012, where a Solar SuperStorm would occur. (The SuperStorm would knock out most of the internet, Wi-Fi, and Wireless Connections for days, causing chaos on highly modernized countries, such as Europe, The United States, and Russia).

'Intelligent" Robots

The Robot floating in the air is called "Honeywell XM 156". It is a Miniature Air Vehicle that can literally "hover and stare" to designated targets. Which in others words, can spy human activity discreetly from a safe distance. This is definitely not a robot which we would want it to be "smart".

Official known as "Boston Dynamics Big Dog." Doesn't it look like something out of Modern Warfare or Call of Duty? This "Big Dog" lives up to its name. With full charge and well-oiled parts, it can easily cross 10 to 20 miles ( usually around 14) on any sort of terrain. The speed is about of a very old car, (20 - 40 mph.) < -- Please comment on this if I am wrong, the speed of the "Big Dog" is not known yet.

It can also act as a scout, and "detect" enemy bases and current hide - outs. Sadly, it does not have a form of "eyes" to "see" the settings around them, or detectors. The 'Big Dog" is rumored to be used mainly as a scout and "chaser" (To chase targets and therefore, not completely lose them).

Smarter Machines

Nowadays, there is no day in our lives where either TVs, GPS systems, Cell Phones, or Computers are not used. This is primarily one reason why our technology, and research and development into Robots are intensifying. Most robots however, are used for military. In The Korean Demilitarized Zone, the Samsung TechWin SGR-1 is employed to ward off North Korean invaders, if they ever try to come over the border (which they have done, and failed numerous times).

The SGR - 1 has a grenade launcher, and has a variety of cameras to detect invading North Koreans. It has been encoded to recognize which "line" is the border, where the North and South Koreans are supposed to be. The Grenade Launcher will automatically fire if this "line" is crossed.

This is just one of the many thousands of new robots that have been developed to combat, or defend against intruders. One main danger is, that the robots could gain a mind of its own and bite back. After all it is possible. Already, the modern web poses dangers to others, which include spyware, viruses, and trackers. The robots we produce may be smart enough to the extent that it cannot function without proper human maintennace. However, with our ongoing industrialization, robots could eventually break free from human overview and begin acting independently, which is most likely to be disastrous for humans.

Final Part (Sphere Inside Out)

This is how a sphere would start to turn inside out:

Now the interior strips of the sphere will slowly come out, and for a brief moment we will see the purple interior:

Now notice that the oval-shaped exterior rings can separate into two different "layers" (look closely).

The interior expands and the exterior material is absorbed into the sphere (remember that the inner and exteriors of this can fold through itself)

Sphere (Inside Out) part 2

Now we can try to turn the sphere inside out by pushing the material through itself. Seems pretty easy right?

Notice how even though it seems the figure is totally inside out, there is a visible yellow rim along the transformed figure.


As we see this, we could see "If folding and pushing inward does not work as it still leaves a border, and if we fold it the abstract material is automatically destroyed, then how do we do it?"

Turning Something (Sphere) Inside Out

For all the people on the interwebz who are into mathematical and scientific (such as the 11 dimensions and Zeno's Motion Paradoxes).

Just How can someone turn a geometrical 3-D figure inside out without making a hole in it so we could do it physically? This way is possible, but mathematicians have figured out some time ago how to do it, but of course, with abstract material:

Elastic Material that can bend and twist (but cannot rip or it will be non-existant)

And can easily bend through itself:

                          

Google TV - Useless or Not? (Continued)

Apple TV is obviously much cheaper than the Google TV, as the proposed and even the lowest set prices are above $1400 at the least. While the Apple TV is more than 50% much cheaper, and many reviews report it is just as good.

However:

This is what Google TV is controlled by, somewhat like a phone on steroids, and can control the TV without being connected to it.

With the New Remote 2.0 App, virtually any Apple product, such as an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch can control the iTV.

Take a look at this, an Android Phone (Any, ranging from G1 to the Nexus), and even the iPhone for a little variation.

Lastly Google TV can perform flawlessly on Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, and all websites that have flash integrated into them, such as Twitter, Formspring, and FaceBook.

Recently, Apple TV has had issues with streaming videos and music. Google TV and Apple TV seem at least for now, equals. Both TVs allow various cell phone usage as remote controls, wi-fi, and access to iTunes, Netflix, etc. But with a massive price tag on Google TV, which one would prevail?

Google TV - Useless or Not?

Google TV is out, and it seems like its a GREAT piece o' machine: It's a great widescreen TV with full internet access with Adobe Flash 10.1, basically making it a TV- computer. But is it really as good as it seems?   Let's take a look and compare with Apple TV


 Apple TV:

W

Wi-Fi 802.11 a
iTunes
Netflix Account
iTunes Store Account
Apple A4 Chip

Google TV:

Wireless 802.11a
Logitech Unifying Wireless Technology
Ethernet 10 (or 100) Base T
USB 2.0 Ports
Atom Processor

Zune Expansion

Zune will now be creating an official Marketplace Online Store, and along with it Free and other forms of Zune software, (just like Apple app store). The Zune Pass will enhance all Microsoft related products, such as Xbox live, WIndows phone 7, and on your Zune HD.

Zune software has gone under a major upgrade, and the new version 4.7, will be available in all countries in Europe. Almost all Zune services are now integrated into Windows Phone 7, Zune HD, and XbOx Live. The updated Zune HD and Zune software allows high quality streaming movies and crystal clear songs and audio.

When you buy a Zune PASS, it allows anything from the Zune store to be downloaded free, and watched directly on any pc, xbox live account, zune, or anything else that can be related to Zune. The new Zune software will allow INSTANT downloads and high quality, quick streaming. All music downloads are MP3 and the movies are usually in WMV format.

The Zune PASS will be bought for 8.99/9.99 euros per month, and will provide special features and more speed when downloading.

Will ZUNE regain its glory, and retain its well-deserved fame along with the Apple App Store?

More Upcoming Phones (Verizon)

Saygus V-Phone

GPS (Advanced)
QWERTY KeyBoard
CDMA 900/1900
480x800 Pixel HD Display
5 MB Camera, MicroSD, 3G Android


RIM BlackBerry Storm 3 9570

 BB 0S 7
 SurePress TouchScreen (Presses down when you type on the screen, making it easier to feel which key you are pressing)
CDMA Dual band (800/1900 MHz)
HTML Browser, MPEG 4, WMV
MicroUSB, GPS,
Wi-Fi
BlueTooth

 BlackBerry RIM Curve 2 8930

 3.2 MB Camera
480x380 Size Screen (Small)
TrackBall (Could be TrackPad)
CDMA Dual Band (800/1900 MHz)
66,000 Colors
BlackBerry Browser, RSS
USB
BlueTooth 2.0, microSD
QWERTY Full KeyBoard

Apple Products for 2011

Ipad (With FaceTime and Front Camera)

Front Camera for FaceTime
Different Screen Sizes, 5in and 7in
USB Port
iOS 4.2
Better Flash Support (Flash slowed down the Ipad and drained the battery very quickly)
Protective Covering (Protects iPad from the heat, heat causes iPad to become sluggish or shut down instantly)

Dell Studio XPS 15 and 17

The New Dell laptops specs have been leaked, and here we are!

Intel Core i5 and i7 (Primarily i7)
XPS 15 will have a minimum (8 GB RAM) and (1.2 TB HardDrive)
Nvidia GeForce Graphics Quadro or Cuda
XPS 17 will have (16 GB RAM (0_0)) and (1.2 TB Hard Drive) with (Dual HDD)
Predicted Very High Price Range : $2600-3000
JBL, USB 3.0, Screen Sizes, Primarily 13-17in.

Iphone 5G (woot!!)

Iphone 5g had been announced by Apple and will come out sometime next year during June or July, the perfect time where most students are enjoying their height of summer vacation! :).


8MP Camera (Sony)
Virgin Mobile
28 More Pixels
Better-quality Facetime
128 GB Memory
With iPhone OS 4.0 or 4.1 (4.0 is more likely)
1-2 more hours of battery
NO Flash Support (Apple's Greatest Weakness)
OLED Processor

New Upcoming Phones/Specs

Sorry about lack of posts, was busy for a while at my new private school ;/.
Anyways, here's some new cell phones and their specs you might like to hear about:


BlackBerry Curve 9330 3G:

512 MB of RAM
:WI-FI b/g,
Bluetooth
BlackBerry 6
MicroSD card (32 Gigabytes)


Sanyo Innuendo

Flipside QWERTY Keyboard
Has a unique screen Feature (The current numbers and time shown above disappears when not in use)
3.2 Megapixel Camera
2.9 inch huge Display

Samsung Epic 4G

 
iPhone-Like Screen Set-up
Great QWERTY Keyboard
AMOLED Display
Video Chat (Samsung version of FaceTime)
5 MB Camera
(Extremely Costly!)

One of the World's Fastest GRaphics card

Along with NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800 graphics card (with 4GB memory), is the Asus ROG ARES HD 5970 Graphics Card. The ROG ARES HD Card is equipped with 2 ATI Radeon HD 5870s which enable it to be 30-40% faster that reference 5970 solutions.

ASUS ROG ARES HD 5970 Specs:

2x1600 Steam Processors

725 MHz (Clocked, 850 MHz)

4GB of GDDR5 Memory

3D Mark Vantage: (X14104)

 Now For the Fastest and the most Expensive Quadro FX Card,

Nvidia Quadro FX 5800:

All of Quadro FX cards are thought to be for extreme graphic firepower, but this "graphics card" is fit for engineers, scientists, and modelers who seek to see high quality detail on their models on 3D and 4D, such as Maya. SURPRISINGLY, this Graphics Card Will NOT reach 60 FPS or anything even close in games such as Far Cry and Call of Duty (PC), in fact the game play will slow down as its not fit for gaming.

Nvidia Quadro FX 5800 Specs:

• 240 CUDA Parallel Processor Cores
• 4GB Memory Size (GDDR3)
• 102GB/s Bandwidth
• 1 DisplayPort
• 189W Maximum Power Consumption
• Allows HD 4D modeling
• Memory: 800 MHz
• 512 bit Memory Interface

This is an Example of HD 4D modeling: This "Graphics Card" is NOT for gaming! It is for serious and heavy modelers who need high quality models to represent their work.