Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Military Weapons are Getting Smaller
As I was browsing the internet, I came across an article that first made me want to say, what next? The article was about a new mechanical hummingbird. This is not a new toy but a spy weapon for the military. The article says that the Pentagon has spent four million dollars on this project. The weapon can move up, down, forward, and backward. The thing, i hope does not happen is that when these things are finally released or maybe even before that , that we do not see the world's hummingbird population drop. The full article can be found at:http://n.pr/eadMKX
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Meet the New Jeopardy Contestant
While I was searching the internet and came across something that caught me off guard and to be honest it scared me a little. The article which I came across was about a computer which was a contestant on Jeopardy.
The name of the computer is Watson and it was made by the people at IBM. It works because the people who made it put about 200 million pages of information in it. The information ranges from pages of the Bible, novels, and encyclopedias. The lead creator, David Ferrucci says that the computer quickly picks out many possible answers and uses phrases and other hints to answer the questions from the show.
Mr. Ferrucci says that Watson is not mistake proof and can flub up on occasion. One example of this is when in a sparring match, the question what do grashoppers eat was asked. The robot answered kosher. Ferrucci says that computer technology is not at the point were computers will run people's lives however it proves that artificial intelligence is farther advanced than I at the least released.
This article scares me and i kind of makes me scared that the people in charge do not tell us everything. It also makes me think that technology is farther advanced than we realize.
The full story can be found at the following website: http://n.pr/fHTBvq
The name of the computer is Watson and it was made by the people at IBM. It works because the people who made it put about 200 million pages of information in it. The information ranges from pages of the Bible, novels, and encyclopedias. The lead creator, David Ferrucci says that the computer quickly picks out many possible answers and uses phrases and other hints to answer the questions from the show.
Mr. Ferrucci says that Watson is not mistake proof and can flub up on occasion. One example of this is when in a sparring match, the question what do grashoppers eat was asked. The robot answered kosher. Ferrucci says that computer technology is not at the point were computers will run people's lives however it proves that artificial intelligence is farther advanced than I at the least released.
This article scares me and i kind of makes me scared that the people in charge do not tell us everything. It also makes me think that technology is farther advanced than we realize.
The full story can be found at the following website: http://n.pr/fHTBvq
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Podcast and Reviews
In one of my classes, the professor told us we had to blog about a podcast and gave us some sites we could get podcasts from one of them was Slate's Culture Gabfest. I chose the January 4, 2011 edition entitled Your Marriage is Probably Doomed. This particular podcast's host were Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens and Julia Turner. This podcast talked about the film Blue Valentine, the year in film for 2010, and a thing called Google ngram.
First up they talk and review in detail the movie Blue Valentine. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The way they speak of and describe this movie kind of makes me not want to see it. They say that the movie is extremely realistic in that basically from the beginning you know that their marriage is in trouble. I have to say that when they speak and say that the film is hard to follow in that it is hard to find the turning point when you know things are going south really puts this film on the backburner for me because in a way I kind of wanted to see it. They have mixed feelings but ultimately say it is realistic and depressing.
The next thing they discussed is the year in films for 2010. They all seem to have mixed feelings again because one likes Black Swan and another does not. I kind of want to see this one but that is not a guarantee at this point. They all agree however that Toy Story 3 is worthy of being one of last years best and one even says that it was the overall best. Some other films they all seemed to agree upon would include Inside Job a movie I have never heard of and this is kind of the only one they agree upon. The funny thing about their movie review selections was the fact of their wild card films. One said they really liked Machete, another said he thought Tangled was one of the best and the third said a foreign film that I cannot recall the title of.
The third part to me was the least interesting to me. It was that of the Google ngram and their database of 5.6 million books in their database. They have mixed feelings about this but i would have to say they all think it is a positive except for the fellings that Stephen had about the idea that this would not allow for literary reviews because if I am not mistaken he feels that it takes away parts of the books in general. These three had good ideas and for the most part the podcast was entertaining and I might again listen to them in the future.
First up they talk and review in detail the movie Blue Valentine. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The way they speak of and describe this movie kind of makes me not want to see it. They say that the movie is extremely realistic in that basically from the beginning you know that their marriage is in trouble. I have to say that when they speak and say that the film is hard to follow in that it is hard to find the turning point when you know things are going south really puts this film on the backburner for me because in a way I kind of wanted to see it. They have mixed feelings but ultimately say it is realistic and depressing.
The next thing they discussed is the year in films for 2010. They all seem to have mixed feelings again because one likes Black Swan and another does not. I kind of want to see this one but that is not a guarantee at this point. They all agree however that Toy Story 3 is worthy of being one of last years best and one even says that it was the overall best. Some other films they all seemed to agree upon would include Inside Job a movie I have never heard of and this is kind of the only one they agree upon. The funny thing about their movie review selections was the fact of their wild card films. One said they really liked Machete, another said he thought Tangled was one of the best and the third said a foreign film that I cannot recall the title of.
The third part to me was the least interesting to me. It was that of the Google ngram and their database of 5.6 million books in their database. They have mixed feelings about this but i would have to say they all think it is a positive except for the fellings that Stephen had about the idea that this would not allow for literary reviews because if I am not mistaken he feels that it takes away parts of the books in general. These three had good ideas and for the most part the podcast was entertaining and I might again listen to them in the future.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Finally Some Good News or is it?
With all the sad news and in some ways scary news about what is happening in Egypt, I was really was trying to find some good news. I know everyone remembers the BP oil spill from last year, know the experts are saying that it will not take as long as previously expected. According to the administrator of the compensation team who was placed in charge by BP, Mr. Kenneth Feinberg. According to him and his team of environmentalists, economists, and other experts think that the Gulf should be cleaned by the end of 2012. However, they do place the claim that prediction is not an exact science. The money which is supposed to be compensated for the people who lost money will begin to take place very shortly. So far, Mr. Feinberg has given out $3.5 billion in emergency needs to the stricken Gulf areas.
However, many consider Feinberg not being disconnected from BP. According to a report done by a Texas A&M, researcher he claims that it is not going to be cleaned that quickly. Many people follow the findings of the A&M researcher and have found that this research could have some merit and many residents have hired lawyers to fight Feinberg and get the money they believe they deserve if it turns to those circumstances. I hope that the people are correct and that it takes a shorter amount of time than initially thought for the Gulf to recover, however only time will tell in that manner. Another point I would like to make is I hope the people get their just amount of money however, I hope they do not get greedy and want more than they deserve.
The full story can be found at http://nyti.ms/gd709b
However, many consider Feinberg not being disconnected from BP. According to a report done by a Texas A&M, researcher he claims that it is not going to be cleaned that quickly. Many people follow the findings of the A&M researcher and have found that this research could have some merit and many residents have hired lawyers to fight Feinberg and get the money they believe they deserve if it turns to those circumstances. I hope that the people are correct and that it takes a shorter amount of time than initially thought for the Gulf to recover, however only time will tell in that manner. Another point I would like to make is I hope the people get their just amount of money however, I hope they do not get greedy and want more than they deserve.
The full story can be found at http://nyti.ms/gd709b
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)