Your Tax Dollars at Work

An article in the Washington Post this morning titled, "Denali or McKinley? How a 19th century political ‘joke’ turned into a 119-year-long debate," discusses what has apparently been an ongoing issue with Congress regarding the name of the highest mountain in North America.

Mount McKinley is likely a familiar name to most.  While people may not know that it resides in Denali National Park in Alaska, or that it is the tallest mountain In both the U.S. and across the North American continent at over 20,000 feet, when it comes to names of mountains it is probably at least one that comes to mind.  I know that I have wondered previously why it was named after William McKinley, the 25th president, but not enough to actually type "Mount McKinley" into a Google search to then click on the Wikipedia article.Apparently if I had succumbed to investigating this curiosity, I would have found that the name "McKinley" is rather unsettling for a portion of our government.

Though the government officially recognized the name of the mountain as being "McKinley" nearly a century ago - making official the name that had been proposed in 1896 by a gold prospector who was a supporter of McKinley's - numerous people were unhappy with that name and thought that it should remain the name that was given by the native Alaskans: Denali.  Well, those people can finally enjoy a good-night's rest, because President Obama, in one of his more ruthless and courageous actions as President, has made an Executive Order to rename "Mount McKinley" to "Mount Denali".

That's a relief.

Clearly there is an angle to this - why else would the government use its powers to settle this issue?  Let's consider the financial affects that will cascade down from this decision:

• Every geography book published before August 31st, 2015 is now wrong
• Who wins: textbook manufacturers and book sellers who will now stand to reap windfalls as all geography books used in educational systems across the country will now have to be replaced
• Every "Mount McKinley" branded pin, magnet, collectible spoon, and other merchandise just became outdated
• Who wins: antique and historical collectors whose "Mount McKinley" collection just jumped in value
• Every tour group and tourist trap that marketed themselves as "McKinley" will have to change their names
• Who wins: tour groups that are now marketing: "be the first to scale Mount Denali"

Near as I can tell, President Obama must have a sizable collection of Mount McKinley merchandise, have ownership in some portion of the textbook industry, and/or have a travel business in and around Denali National Park, because why else would taxpayer money go towards funding the decision to settle a century-old debate that no one even knew about until today?

Here is a link to the original article from the Washington Post: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/31/denali-or-mckinley-how-a-19th-century-political-joke-turned-into-a-119-year-long-debate/

It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Supermoon!

If you happened to look up at the Moon in the past couple nights as it is approaching Full Moon (which completes August 29th), you may have noticed that it seems a bit bigger than usual.  It's not just an illusion of some sort, the Moon will appear larger in the sky as it completes its next three Full Moon cycles.  These three Full Moon cycles have been given the cute term of Supermoons.

Before I explain why this occurs, let me first dispel the false information that will undoubtedly be passed around in the form of email or Facebook Spam.  The Moon will not cover half of the sky.  The Moon will not cause gravitational oscillations that will knock out the power grid or air traffic control stations.  The Moon will not cause massive tidal waves.  The Moon will not become blood red and unleash its fury on the Earth.

On September 27th though, the Moon actually will become blood red as it completes a Full Moon cycle that coincides with the largest of the three Supermoons while simultaneously having a lunar eclipse.  And during lunar eclipses the Moon does take on a blood red appearance at full eclipse - that much is true.

The reason for the enlarged appearance is due to the common property of celestial bodies in that they all have elliptical orbits, and so throughout its orbit the Moon is constantly getting either nearer or further away.  Because the orbital cycle length (27.3 days) is not in exact alignment with the lunar cycle length (29.5 days), there are variations in the distance of the moon from the earth at each of its different phases.  It just so happens that this year, there will be three cycles in a row that are termed Supermoons, which is just the name given Full Moons that occur relatively close to the Moons nearest approach to the earth, or perigee.

While the Moon will not cause any of the aforementioned disasters, one must always be on the lookout for people during Full Moons.  Though there has been no concrete scientific explanation for the affect of the Full Moon on humans, observationally people do seem to exhibit eccentric and erratic behaviors during a Full Moon.  So maybe September 27th would be a good day to just stay in for the evening and enjoy the Lunar trifecta (Supermoon, Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse) from the safety of one's backyard.

Why the News is Broken

I came to a realization this morning when searching for the subject of today's blog: the "news" as we know it is inherently broken.

Let's look at the mission of any news source.  Most big-name news agencies have altruistic BS slogans they spout off including things like: "truth in reporting"; "on your side"; "most trusted name in news"; and "fair and balanced".  They may pretend these are their motivations, however the truth is that like any business their real motivation is money.  The true mission of any news agency will fall under one or more of these points:

• Be the first to print (or post)
• Give priority to news items that appeal to the masses
• Grab the attention of the viewer or reader using overly-hyped headlines
• Report the details that sound most controversial; ignore those with real substance
• Sell advertisements

At the risk of sounding like I am about to repeat my previous post about advertising and the internet, advertising revenue is and always will be the bottom-line motivation of news agencies.  Whereas I appreciate and enjoy supporting content creators that have interesting and entertaining content to provide, I have no such sympathy for general news agencies.

I tend to use Google News to be my primary news aggregator, and what I have observed lately with Google News is that priority of how articles appear in the feed is given either to major news outlets or to the most sensational headlines (regardless of source).  Even though I have no desire to read about the most sensationalized news topic as of late (intentionally omitting reference to that topic), my entire feed across all of my chosen news themes (US, World, Sci/Tech, Science, Technology, Entertainment and Sports) has become watered down by articles working a different angle to that same news story.  This has become the most profoundly obvious evidence that the news is broken.

There is likely pressure on editors and reporters at the individual agencies to find new angles to the current news story, so reporters are massaging the details to try and stand apart.  Certainly they realize that there is nothing "new" here.  The story is the same.  The details are the same.  As a result, articles that really aren't "news" are receiving far more priority and attention because of the revenue they are generating from the masses of people who crave controversy.  Meanwhile, legitimate news stories are getting lost and forgotten.   Google as a news feed is clearly working in tandem with major outlets to entice people to read sensational articles about non-news, because that's the storyline that is getting all of the attention.

It is getting all of the attention because it is being forced down our throats and burnt into our retinas!

Amongst the major news agencies, there is no "truth in reporting" or "fair and balanced".  There is hype and controversy.  And where there is no hype or controversy, there is simulated hype and controversy.  These companies, including Google, are clearly working together to determine what is most news-worthy and deserving of attention based on what will generate the most revenue.  This is why, at least for me, the news is broken.

The Age of Connectedness

Physicist Derek Muller runs an "edutainment," or educational-entertainment, channel on YouTube called Veritasium.  What makes his videos particularly effective is that is he able to blend scientific concepts with approachable and relatable references that do not require any sort of a math or science background in order to follow.

In his latest video, he discusses some fascinating social behaviors of the connections between people in society through Facebook or other internet platforms, all the while using set theory and combinatorics to further explain the observable patterns (and he doesn't even have to say the words "set theory" or "combinatorics" to do so).

The topic centers around how many (or how few) connections it takes for you to meet or become acquainted with anyone else in the world.  Some of you may remember the game that reached some level of fame around a decade ago called, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.  This followed a similar premise - that through no more than five other actors you could trace any actor, by a movie they were in, back to one that Kevin Bacon was in.  While the game was fun for about 5 minutes, the premise has very important implications in how connected society has now become.

In fact, through the expansion of the user-base of Facebook in conjunction with the spread of internet services into developing countries, it is posited (by none other than the rockstar of Astronomy himself, Neil deGrasse Tyson, while making a cameo appearance) that now the number may have reduced from six connections between you and anyone else in the world, down to five or maybe even four.  The connections you have today, through your network of friends, could be no more than 4 handshakes away from anyone else in the world.

Because of how the prevalence of the internet is allowing more and more people to gather in digital assemblies, preliminary discussions have begun on whether the current era should be ascribed "The Age of Connectedness".  While I think it is a bit premature to delineate a brand new age, given the fact that we just finally labeled "The Information Age" in the last decade or so, I agree that this is just the beginning of how important digital, social connections will become in society.  That said, I am not sold on the idea that the level of connectedness will only continue to grow as time goes on.  With all of the information breaches happening lately, I am predicting an eventual backlash against the proliferation of these connections.  Perhaps someday in the future there will be a rebound from all of this, we'll enter into "The Age of Isolation".

For now, I just recommend you check out the video that formed the basis of this post in the link below and hear about it from Derek Muller himself.  If you enjoy the video and want to support his future efforts, don't forget to click the button to subscribe to Veritasium.

It's Like a Mediterranean-Influenced Chipotle

Visit them online: Troy Grille

Tucked in-between Blue: A Goodwill Boutique and the Stone Tavern on Main Street in Kent, Ohio is a small Mediterranean restaurant called Troy Grille.  Like many other places that have enjoyed the revitalization of the downtown area, Troy Grille is small operation that identified a niche to be filled - in this case, Mediterranean fast-food (no, Gyro Bob doesn't count).  In contrast to some of the other local dining establishments, Troy Grille offers a wide selection of reasonably healthy options, and the familiar sounding "wrap-bowl-salad" choices that harken back to the current king of Mexican fast food, Chipotle.

What makes Troy Grille stand out is that the food is really good.   My wife and I stopped in yesterday for the first time.   We both ordered bowls - she chose a falafel bowl, and I went with a beef shwarma bowl - and then we picked from white rice and bulgar to form the basis of the bowl.  Between the two, i would recommend the bulgar - it is nicely seasoned and has a bit more going on with it than the white rice.  After choosing our base, we were presented a variety of vegetables and sauces that can be layered on, including standard items like onions, pickles, black olives, etc. as well as Mediterranean staples like cacik (which is similar to the Greek tzatziki), feta, hummus, and grape leaves.  Some items, like the hummus and grape leaves, will cost a little extra but it is well worth it.

Once we chose all of the veggies and sauces for the bowls, they topped them with the freshly heated main items (falafel and beef shwarma).  Let me just say, the beef shwarma isn't merely seasoned strips of tender beef.  It comes out in this delightful collage of beef, onions, tomatoes and mozzarella all melted together into a cohesive unit.

My wife and I were both very pleased with our respective choices, and if you know anything about my wife and ethnic cuisine, her being pleased speaks volumes.  She preferred the falafel over the beef shwarma, and I enjoyed both.  Though I have to admit that despite my skepticism of their claim to have the best falafel around, it still met all expectations.

It is important to support small, locally owned shops and restaurants to keep cities like Kent from being overrun with corporate establishments.  So the next time you happen to be wandering through Kent, be sure to check out Troy Grille.

Fans Only Work When You're Sweaty

An article published in Wired this past week (http://www.wired.com/2015/08/fans-dont-always-make-things-cooler/) explored the myths and reality of cooling off with a fan.  The researchers performed several tests that demonstrated how running fans on a warm day could actually be counter-productive.

The problem arises around the fact that fans are electrical devices, and that in order for those devices to work, they need to be fed with energy. Running a fan on low will consume a little bit of energy; running it on high will consume more energy.  With all of the electricity flowing through the fan, the wires and motors will heat up.  If you've ever touched the backside of the fan running on full-blast, you've surely noticed that it can get quite warm.

As air passes over and around the motor before being shot out the front, it will heat up.  In the test performed by the researchers that simulated an extreme example of a closed room, whereby the fan was placed inside a styrofoam box, the temperature inside the box heated up at a very steady rate of two degrees (Fahrenheit) a minute.  Imagine then having this inside a bedroom.  If there is no window or other source of cooler air, the air inside the room will continue to pass over the heated motor and the temperature will continue to rise.  Perhaps this is why waking up after running a fan all night, you sometime feel like you're in a sauna.

The one variable that can alter this behavior however, is sweat.  Sweat, being the body's natural air conditioning system, will actually lower body temperature as they evaporate.  Enter the fan.

While running a fan has been shown to heat air to a higher temperature, particularly in a closed room, standing in front of a fan will cool you off.  The air rushing over the beads of sweat will cause them to evaporate quicker, which in turn will cool you off quicker.  So fans definitely do have their place in the hot summer months.  Just remember though, if you're not sweating, running the fan may be working against you; unless of course your goal is to raise the temperature of the room to the point that you are sweating, in which case, maybe you should save some money on your energy bill by ditching the fan and just opening a window.

Alien Overlords Protected Earth from Itself

In one of the more far-fetched news stories recently, Edgar Mitchell, an Astronaut on Apollo 14 and the sixth of twelve people to walk on the moon, shared his theory on how the Cold War between Russia and the United States ended: Aliens.

That's right, based on personal observations and from stories he heard from people who worked in Roswell and around missile facilities like White Sands, he subscribes to the theory that aliens visited these locations and intervened in test operations.  The aliens were purported to have disabled the functioning of certain missiles and to have shot down others that were fired during test sequences.  Roswell, New Mexico, has long been known for being a hot-bed of suspicious activity including the sightings of strange aircraft or other light displays that have never been fully explained.  The problem however, is that there has never been any public announcement of the presence of intelligent beings from other planets from a truly credible source of information.  Perhaps I am just too much of a skeptic, but no, I am not willing to accept Edgar Mitchell as being that ever-missing credible source of information.

Perhaps more plausible explanations for the oddities that were blamed on alien intervention could be: these were tests and experiments, that's what they do - fail sometimes; employees of these locations valued the lives of their families and intentionally disabled the missiles in an effort to prevent all-out war; power surges; or static electricity (it is New Mexico, afterall).

The most glaring hole in the alien hypothesis is: how would the aliens know where to find these secret government missile installations?  I have my own hypothesis on this.  They aren't just aliens - that's crazy.  They are TIME-TRAVELING ALIENS!  Yes, it would all make sense.  In a future where nuclear war took place and the Earth was blown to an inhabitable waste, aliens from the future who wanted to make future Earth their home, went back in time to when the nuclear war started and tampered with the missiles and equipment so frequently that neither Russia nor the United States were confident in their ability to blow up their enemy without blowing themselves up, and this ultimately led to them electing to never use these weapons.  Now it all makes sense.

All kidding aside, I do absolutely believe that within the vastness of the Universe, there are civilizations far more advanced than ours (considering the hundreds of millions of years wasted on terrible lizards, and since modern humans have gotten where we have in just tens of thousands of years).  It is also plausible that some of the theoretical concepts for space travel that are currently being explored on Earth, like near light-speed propulsion, have already been figured out by these civilizations.  However it is still unlikely that visitors from these civilizations are just hanging out in the New Mexico dessert, flying around and putting on a show for the UFO enthusiasts.  While it is my hope that in this lifetime we will make a discovery that shows definitively that life exists elsewhere from Earth, the thought that we will establish first contact and form galactic treaties with our alien overlords is, at least for now, purely science fiction.

The Catch-22 of Internet Ad-Blocking

Anyone who remembers the internet of the late 1990's and the early 2000's remembers the prevalence and annoyance of pop-up advertisements when surfing the web.  In fact, some may remember how intentionally infuriating some were, by opening massive and massive amounts of pop-ups all at the same time.  While it took longer than it should have, browsers introduced a feature that gave people the control to decide whether or not they would allow pop-ups.  This feature is still cooked into all major browsers.  The wonderful affect this had was to force advertisers to adopt new principles for advertising on the internet.  It appears we are headed for round 2 of this fight.

Most people would agree that advertising on the internet is at best something to ignore while consuming other content, and at worst an utter invasion of privacy as it tracks my movements and browsing patterns in order to force content that I am more likely to click on (intentionally or accidentally) and is potentially laced with spyware.  The solution that has been adopted by the more privacy conscious for years has been to install an ad-blocker of one form or another.  For people running slower computers, ad-blockers have become necessary in order for their browsing experience not to become excruciatingly slow.

Herein lies the problem.

Everyone consuming content on the internet appreciates quality content that is easy to find and provides interest and entertainment.  In fact, many content creators have been able to make their entire annual income strictly from creating and publishing quality content on the internet.  But if you are not paying for the content when you consume it, how are they getting paid?  That's right, through advertisements; those same advertisements that your ad-blocking software prevents from loading.

Every time an ad-blocker hides an advertisement on the internet, that equates to lost revenue for the source of the content (be it an individual or a corporation).  Unfortunately for the content creators, ad-blocker adoption rates have begun skyrocketing as the general masses recognize that they can enjoy a more pleasant internet experience by hiding those unwanted ads.  What this will ultimately lead to is for the advertisers and the content creators to work together in ways they never have before.

For years, creators could just add a tag to their site that would allow an advertiser to load onto the page whatever advertisement they want based on the computer that was loading the page.  The creator did not have to involve themselves with what appeared or even how it affected the content they published, the paycheck came the same no matter what.

Now, in order for advertisements to avoid the ad-blockers, they need to become more seamlessly included in the content such that it does not set off the "warning:advertisement" flag to the ad-blocker.  YouTubers who have received sponsorship from other companies will include a quick shout-out to the company in their video.  For website publishers, sometimes they will partner with companies to occasionally provide sponsored content that really just amounts to an advertisement in the form of an article.

The bottom line: if you want the internet to remain free, the content creators have to get paid through other means, and advertisements are the officially adopted source of revenue.  I do not advocate turning off your ad-blocker entirely, but if you find yourself going back to the same content creator frequently because you particularly enjoy their work, maybe consider supporting them by allowing their ads to float through.  At least you can take solace in the fact that you've made a conscious decision to do so (rather than being force-fed the advertisements), and you're encouraging the creator to continue making the content you enjoy.

The Future of Meat

If you haven't already checked out the youTube channel, The Good Stuff, I highly recommend it.  Most of the channels I follow have some bearing on science, technology and the arts.  While The Good Stuff is no exception, they have a very unique format to the videos they produce.  They release their videos as playlist and each playlist is given a theme that ties the videos together.  In the past they have used themes like the time, sleep, and robots.  The current playlist they are producing is titled: The Future of Food.

Admittedly, this sounded like one of the lesser interesting topics they've chosen to date.  I mean, what's so interesting about food of the future?  Well, they have released the first two of the five eventual videos in this playlist, and while it may not be a thought provoking as some of their other topics, it is really quite interesting.  The first video (which I actually watched second) titled, "Can We Make Meat Out of Plants" covers the possibility that producing meat from animals may not be a sustainable source of nutrients due to the massive amounts of water (up to 2,500 gallons), energy, and feed it takes to raise each pound of edible meat, like from a cow for example, and then explores how one company is turning plants into meat.

The video touches on other problems that arise from the reliance on animal-based nutrients. In addition to the problem of the inputs it takes to get a single pound of beef, studies have shown that the global livestock industry contributes anywhere from 18% to 51% of the total greenhouse emissions.  The potential effect of these emissions on the Earth will be reserved for another post another day, but regardless that is a pretty staggering figure.

Interestingly, the company interviewed for this video, Beyond Meat, is trying to address the meat from plant question in a far more interesting manner than say companies that produce black bean burgers.  Their concept is "Can plant protein be used to create meat that is indistinguishable from animal-based meat?"  They have created an incredible process for tackling this question that at least seems to create product that passes the eye-test.  By starting with pea protein and running it through a process that realigns its amino acids, they are chemically altering the protein to more closely resemble animal protein.  They can then form this product into different types of meat substitutes - like hamburger and chicken.  The host of the video seemed to enjoy the flavor of the hamburger he tried, though he still seemed less than convince.  The chicken on the other hand seemed very impressive.

We appear to still be in the infancy of trying to tackle the sustainability problem, but it at least appears that there is some promising work underway.  I recommend you check out the Future of Food playlist at the link below, and if you enjoy their work continue supporting them by subscribing to their channel.

The Elevator and the Trophies

Ok, You Go First

The Ontario-based company, Toth Technology, has applied for and been granted a patent to build the world's first "Space Elevator".  This elevator would be a 12.4 mile (20 km) tall behemoth that would be supported by pressurized gas.  At the top would be a couple of rocket launchpads and runway so that specially-designed spacecraft could be launched into orbit via rocket and then return to the top of the elevator and land on the runway.

Should this concept actually come to fruition and be built, it could save significant costs in sending satellites and humans into space.  The only problem is, they have to ride a freakin' 12 mile-tall elevator to get there.  That is an elevator that is more than twice as tall as Mount Everest.  As it stands today (pun definitely intended), the tallest manmade structure in the world, the Burj Khalifa, is only a little more than 1/2 mile-tall.

Conceptually, this is not the first proposed space elevator.  That distinction goes to Russian, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who theorized the idea back in 1895.  His vision was for an elevator that stretched all the way up to low-earth orbit, or roughly 22,000 km.  I think it is fair to say we are still pretty far off from that ever happening, but if it were technically feasible, it would make sending satellites into orbit cheaper than taking a flight from Akron to New Orleans, or approximately $230.

Though it is now the proud owner of the patent, Toth Technology is not expected to begin construction of the elevator any time soon.  When it does, let me just say, you can have the honors of going first - I'll wait.

Trophies for Everyone!

Making news over the weekend for his comments related to "participation" trophies, James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kent State University alumnus has ticked off many proud parents of underachieving children.  Harrison mentioned that he returned the "participation" trophies that were given to his sons, because he does not want them to be rewarded for something they haven't earned.  Perhaps the criticism came harsher because he was taking away something from his sons rather than making a general statement on youth sports that hand out trophies to all involved, but this point is absolutely there.

I received numerous "participation" trophies in my childhood; in fact, I just saw them again recently after they had been packed away for roughly ten years.  I scoffed at them again just as I did when I first received them.  The thing that parents are not seeming to grasp is that their children are not dumb (not all of them anyway).  Children know when they have truly succeeded and when they haven't.  They know when they have earned something and when they haven't.

My guess is that the "participation" trophy concept was never intended to be about the kids; when they were first handed out, it was all about the parents.  Think about it: you are on one of the first teams to receive trophies after finishing a season of whatever sport in dead-last.  What's going through your mind?  Maybe, "why are you giving me this?"  Or what about, "We all get trophies?"  They were likely taken aback and confused as to what they did to earn this reward.

Now think about the winning team when trophies were first handed out to all other teams.  They were probably mortified that everyone else got trophies too, and it took away from their achievement that was well-earned.  Sure, their's probably said something like "First Place" or "Champions" and maybe it was a little fancier, but it would still have to cheapen the victory.

Finally, let's look at the perspective of the parents.  Their son or daughter just completed the first of many miserable soccer seasons to come.  The team record was roughly the same as the score in their best game.  The parents are proud of their kid for going out there and "playing their best" and "sticking it out through a rough season".  They feel bad that their child is disillusioned at the season, and that they were questionably not truly fit to play the sport.  Let's cheer them up.  How about this year, instead of only the winning team getting the pizza party and ice cream while receiving their championship trophy, we'll all close out the season together and give all of the kids pizza, ice cream and trophies.  Sports are supposed to be fun, right?  It was only a "recreational" league, not a "competitive" league.  This way all of the kids will end the season on a happy note, and I as a parent who is more concerned about watching my kid be sad than them actually learning any practical life-lessons, can now feel better about this whole ordeal.

The lesson that became ingrained in the kids receiving the "participation" trophies is that of entitlement.  They have been taught that they do not have to succeed on their own, that they do not have to accomplish what they set out to achieve, and that regardless of any outcome, everyone deserves the same reward.  Well, guess what, you can take those "participation" trophies and, in the words of Tanner Boyle, "shove 'em straight up your ass".

How to Learn Quickly as an Adult

How to Adult is a YouTube channel that explains many of the challenges that face adults in the real world.  Sometimes they will explain useful tips for accomplishing tasks better, and other times they will discuss life tips.  In their most recent video, they discuss the science of learning and offer tips on boosting the knowledge and ability acquisition efficiency.  They offer a multi-step process for the manner in which someone should go about learning the new skills.

While the steps themselves seem relatively obvious, it is unlikely that people go through the process with the kind of rigor that is being suggested.  For example, before you even begin the process of learning something, it is apparent that a certain amount of planning needs to happen beforehand.  What specifically do you want to learn?  How complicated will that be?  Will learning individual aspects of the task in a certain order lead to a greater success rate?

The tips provided are good, so I definitely recommend checking out their video, How to Learn New Skills Quickly using the link below.  While you're there, check out some of their other videos, and if you enjoy them, continue supporting them by subscribing to their channel.

Give Me a Beer!

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced the most practical application for robots to-date: beer delivery.  While it may sound like a very trivial task whereby the robot asks what you need, goes and gets it, and then brings it back, it actually could have very important applications in life-and-safety situations.

Their design relies on a team of three robots working together in tandem to take the request, interpret the request, and then deliver the request.  The real achievement in all of this is that the robots had to be programmed to react appropriately in unpredictable situations.  For example, what happens when the robot assigned to the task of delivering a beer accidentally drops it.  Nothing is more disappointing than sad robot trying to explain that you will not be receiving your beer because sad robot failed at its only job.  The scientists designed the robots in such a way that instead of trying to predict all of the possible outcomes (good or bad) in a situation, they focus instead on the results.  So the robot can focus on the primary goal - putting a cold brew in your hand.  Until it has achieved that goal, it must try and retry variations of its assigned duties until all variables line up and the goal is completed.

Additional unpredictability occurs when you have the added complexity of three robots working as a team.  So one robot having an interruption in its assigned duties can have a cascading effect on the others.  The robots were designed to be resilient to these sorts of disruptions and to keep trying until they were successful.  The video below shows how the cooperative nature of these robots lead to efficiencies in being served as well as overcoming the problem of multi-variable environments.

Browns and Raiders Preseason Preview

Cleveland Browns

Tonight marks the highly anticipated first preseason game for the Cleveland Browns.  As I previously touched upon in another post, these games mean practically nothing.  Fans of course will be watching to see the progression of returning players and to see whether any of the players drafted this year can possibly measure up to the level of suck that players drafted in years past have displayed for all to see.

Making not a single interesting move in the offseason, and having their General Manager, Ray Farmer, suspended for the first four games of the regular season (what does that even mean?), the Browns really haven't achieved that spike of optimism we typically hear about every offseason.  In fact, having both of their 2014 first round draft picks spend most of the offseason in rehab or counseling, the falsely inflated hopes for a good season appear to be at an all-time low.  Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised; and maybe people will remember that the Browns actually did change their uniforms and logos this year.

Here are some things to watch for in tonights game versus the Washington Politically Incorrects (formerly, Redskins):

• Will Johnny Manziel show up to the game on time?
• Who is Josh McCown?
• Is it true that the Browns forgot to fill the position of running back?
• Who should I draft in the first round of my fantasy league?
• Is Danny Shelton human or man-beast?
• Will the defense remember they are supposed to tackle the guy with the ball?
• How many times will we hear the name Josh Gordon?

I don't know about you, but I'm pumped.  This is as exciting as when... Zzzzz.

Quick Quiz: Is the Brown's logo at the top this year's or last year's logo?

Answer: Who cares?

Oakland (for now) Raiders

At this point, someone probably thinks this post is just a joke highlighting two of the worst teams in football.  They're right, but these are also the two teams I've chosen to waste four+ months of my life every year rooting for.  Now on to the Raiders, who's first preseason game is tomorrow night against the St. Louis (for now) Rams.  In their meeting last year, the Raiders put on a clinic of sheer ineptitude, losing 52-0.

While the Browns have question marks in every position on the field outside of the offensive line, the Raiders at least have a few things figured out.  Derek Carr will be the starting quarterback - and if all goes well, people will soon know him as something other than David Carr's brother.  Amari Cooper will be the starting number one receiver.  Kalif Barnes will be #69.  Janikowski will be fat.

Once again, the Raiders will be starting the year with a new head coach, this time it is actually someone with previous head coaching experience, Jack Del Rio.  In Del Rio's previous head coaching gig with the Jacksonville Jaguars...  nevermind.  I'm sure he'll be great.

The other big story this year for the Raiders, and funny enough for the Rams as well, is a possible looming move back to Los Angeles.  In fact, depending on how things turn out, Los Angeles could come away with three total teams after this year, up from none.  In a proposed plan, the Chargers will be building a stadium that would be shared with the Raiders in Carson.  The Rams would build a separate stadium about 15 minutes away, in Inglewood.  To be honest, I didn't realize Los Angeles had so much real estate available for stadium development.

Aside from the confusion of references to the Los Angeles Raiders and Los Angeles Rams, with some Los Angeles Chargers thrown in for good measure, here are some other things to watch for in the Raider's game tomorrow night:

• How many players will receive offsides penalties while simultaneously incurring excessive celebration penalties?
• How many times will we hear "false start, number 69"?
• Did they really just say "Trent Richardson"?
• Can anyone on the team play cornerback?
• Who should I draft in the first round of my fantasy league?
• How long will it take Jack Del Rio to regret leaving the Broncos?  (whom they play in weeks 5 and 14, by the way)

Though it seems hard to imagine, the Raiders may at least be moving in the right direction finally. 

Looks Like She Finally Cracked

One thing that did not make news on its own merit was the recent blog post from the Chief Security Officer at Oracle titled, "No, You Really Can't".  What DID make news was the fact that the blog post was a nearly 3,000 word diatribe, pissing and moaning about people (customers, security researchers, consultants, etc.) using tools to discover and report vulnerabilities in Oracle's code to Oracle.  As a security professional myself, I definitely sympathize with Mary Davidson on the frustrations of endless bug-fixing - particularly when these bugs aren't even the ones you already knew about and were actively trying to fix.

I get that.

That tact that she chooses to go down is to hide behind the Oracle license agreement.  She boils the entire problem - and her primary point of contention - down to: "A customer is almost certainly violating the license agreement by using a tool [to analyze Oracle's code]." She repeats this statement about 20 times throughout the post.  The readers of Oracle's official blog are probably not your typical Reader's Digest audience, so I am certain that anyone who intentionally has the official Oracle blog on their reading list, can grasp points without this level of repetition.

She then draws correlation between this activity and violating the sanctity of marriage.  Seems like a bit of a stretch to me.  In particular because those people who are discovering these vulnerabilities and reporting them to Oracle without requesting compensation in return are not reporting them to state-funded criminal organizations or hacktivist groups.  In fact, the people not reporting these discoveries to Oracle are probably making tens of thousands of dollars per vulnerability.

Perhaps instead of ranting incessantly against people who are (possibly?) trying to help, a better angle to take is demonstrate a bit of appreciation first, and then gently remind them (once) that unlike open-source software, performing this sort of analysis with Oracle's code is a violation of their agreement. If she wanted to be especially progressive about it, she could even establish a program whereby people can register to participate in bug detection in an Oracle-provided and controlled manner.

Companies should remember that a little bit of goodwill is all it sometimes takes to keep customers happy - and happy customers don't report bugs to criminal organizations.

Oracle has since rescinded the post because it "does not reflect our beliefs or our relationship with our customer."  Maybe Ms. Davidson is just overdue for a relaxing vacation.

Link to a copy of the original blog post before it was removed:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/274176394/No-You-Really-Can-t-Mary-Ann-Davidson-Blog

Space News: Perseid Meteor Shower and The Dying Universe

The Perseid Meteor Shower

Tonight (Tuesday August 11, 2015) will be first of several good nights for the year's most active meteor shower watching.  Each year around this time, as the Earth makes its annual trip around the sun, it passes directly through the path of comet Swift-Tuttle.  Though the Earth makes its trip around the sun once every 365 days, Swift-Tuttle's takes 133 years, and the most recent time it passed through this portion of the solar neighborhood was back in 1992.

The meteor shower itself is composed of remnant bits of the comet that were jettisoned during one of its previous trips as it was heated up by the sun.  Those bits continue to float around along its path until they collide into the Earth's atmosphere.  When this happens, they heat up from all of the friction, and then burn up - causing the streaks of light that dissipate within about a half second.

Now you may be wondering - if the Earth crosses the path of the comet, then is there some potential that the two will collide?  In fact there is, however scientists have been able to calculate that the soonest this could possibly occur is in 4479.  I'm not planning to stick around long enough to witness this, but maybe someone reading this will.  Even then, calculations show that the chance of there actually being a collision are pretty low, or .0001% - that's one-ten-thousandth of a percent.  Until then, like clockwork, glance up into the evening sky around the second week of August and enjoy the free light show.


The Universe is Dying

Well, not anytime soon anyway.

Researchers announced yesterday that the Universe has been losing total energy, and specifically that older stars are going out faster than new ones are being born.  Their observations are based on the intensity of light omitted from multiple regions of space.  Light that was observed from the deepest, oldest portion of the Universe (about 2 billion years old) has the intensity of about 19 million suns, whereas that from more recent sections only has the intensity of 11 million suns.

What does this mean for our corner of the Universe?  Nothing in our lifetime, or even possibly the lifetime of humans on Earth.  But someday, if you were to observe the Universe as we see it now, there will be far fewer stars to be seen in the sky.  However, that may take a hundred-trillion years; long after this solar system has been put to rest.

The First of Many

Welcome to Top O' the Morning!

This blog will highlight one or two of the best news stories, YouTube videos, or other happenings from this morning on the internet.  Not all posts will be time-sensitive occurrences.  Sometimes it may just contain the product of link-hopping from one site to another that suddenly ended up at some amazing place.

So where this hopefully becomes the first of many posts to this blog, it only seems fitting that the subjects of this post follow along the same theme.

Rhett and Link Return in Good Mythical Morning: Season 8!

The YouTubers Rhett and Link returned this morning for Episode 1 of their daily show, Good Mythical Morning, after a three-week hiatus following the conclusion of Season 7.  If you aren't already familiar with the show, it is worth checking out: www.youtube.com/goodmythicalmorning.

Their videos tend to be a daily serving of randomness with an extra helping of humor.   Many times their videos feature tasting or testing things to save the greater population from having to do the same.  This morning's episode is no exception titled, Pet Food Taste Test.  Pretty self-explanatory. Once again, I have appreciation that they are willing to put themselves through this rather disgusting challenge so that I may remove the same from my own To-Do list.

Whether or not pet food is one of your curiosities, they have a wealth of other videos that are likely to contain at least a few things of interest.  Click on the video link below to check out today's episode, and if you enjoy it, be sure to click on the "subscribe" button to support their future episodes.

Football is Back!

It's that time of year again, where it doesn't matter what teams are on the field, what the names are on the back of the jerseys, or even what the outcomes are of the games.  All that matters is that the brown pigskin (fully inflated, I hope) is flying across the field, and that every fan of every team has the optimism that "maybe this will be the year."  For Raiders fans like myself, we may be deluded, but there is certainly reason to be optimistic that the tide is going to start to turn.  If Derek Carr can follow-up from last season with further growth, and rookie wide receiver, Amari Cooper, can get on the same page as Carr, then there is good reason to feel optimism.

That aside, last night marked the official start of football preseason as the Steelers played the Vikings in the annual Hall of Fame game - capping the events for the Hall of Fame induction weekend. Though it is completely irrelevant, the Vikings did pull off the win over the Steelers (yay?), and both teams showed some promise with their young starters, fringe starters and second teamers starting the game.  Teddy Bridgewater looked particularly sharp for a sophomore QB.

Again, stats don't matter; win-loss records don't matter; all that matters is that football is back!