The first paragraph from the article, MIT Neuroengineer's Pulsing Light Silence Overactive Neurons, written by Anne Tafton.
Scientists at the MIT Media Lab have invented a way to reversibly silence brain cells using pulses of yellow light, offering the prospect of controlling the haywire neuron activity that occurs in diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.
"What were you expecting? Condams?" If you know where that is from then you have been to youtube at least once in your life.
This post is for those of you who have been deprived of seeing the Shoes video on youtube. This is personally my favorite video, and I think that I watch it about twice a day.
It was not until a few days ago that I had learned that one of my friends had NEVER been to youtube. Honestly, how do you get accepted to Chicago and yet you have never been to youtube. Well luckily they have such wonderful friends. We just had to introduce them to the world wonder also know as youtube.
One last note: Lawrence and Will, I am making it your personal responsibility to make sure that this person (you know who I am talking about) never forgets that this video is out there.
The Shoes Video:
No this post is not really about people that annoy me, but I should really make one for that topic in the future.
To stat things off here is the funny video from South Park. It remains funny no matter how many times you watch it.
Well onto a different topic. A few days ago I was looking at the list of math and finance classes that were offered here at UF. Some of the math ones were interesting, especially the ones on probability and differential equations. But, for the most part they all seemed quite dull based on the names. I am sure that if I didn't also want to take finance classes many more of them would appeal to be bust sadly this is not the case. In the same manner not many of the finance classes sounded interesting. The ones that I would really like to take all had a long list of prerequisites. This is going to be a pain. The good news is that the class on risk management only has one prerequisite, and that is a class called Risk and Insurance. Which I probably would have taken anyway. After some thought I don't think that I will double major (math and finance) or even get the minor in actuarial sciences. The main reason for this decision is that to double major I would only be able to take the minimum amount of math electives for the math major since the finance major has a lot of required classes. Also I am not sure that I would be able to finish the double major in four years (yes I sat down and tried to plan it out). The reason for not wanting the minor is kind of childish but still it's a reason. There are just some classes that are required that not to my liking. For instance, the class STA4322 (Mathematical Statistics 2). In stead of taking this I would rather take the class on Probability Theory and the Stochastic Process.
Well now I'm just complaining. Nothing really major to report so I'll get back to studying and programming.
Its really beginning to get old. Parents trying to hold online communities, such as MySpace, responsible for children's actions. You think that if parents spent as much time and effort educating and monitoring as they do filing lawsuits then maybe this wouldn't be a major problem. It is starting to get harder and harder to navigate the internet without finding a story about an underage child that was taken advantage of by an online predator.
From what I have read, MySpace has a way to prevent underage (for some reason I think the limit is set at 13 year of age) surfers from creating accounts with the site. However, as we all know it is almost impossible to verify if someone is telling the truth about their age when online. If the system is like that of other sites then all it ask is for the user to input their date of birth, and anyone with basic math knowledge can figure out what fake birthday they need to be allowed to use the site. Personally I believe that asking for a credit card or checking account number is a much more reliable method of age verification, but this to has its obvious flaws (if they are not immediately obvious to you then too bad, because I am not going to waste time explaining such a trivial matter).
Here is a typical "MySpace story". Basically the stupid girl said that she was 18 (in truth she was only 13) and met a 19 year old guy online. We all know what happened next so no need to get into it. One Question I have is, how the hell did she manage to meet him? I mean as you know she certainly wasn't able to drive to the meeting place so someone had to give her a ride. But I digress. According to this article there is some intelligence in Texas. Yes, it was a Texas Judge that realized that what caused this inappropriate meeting were the deceitful actions of an idiotic 13 year old girl.
Now I'm no parent, but I think that I somehow managed to pick up a thing or two about raising children from my parents. One of the first things I learned before ever using the internet was that you are never to agree to meet people in public unless you already know them in person. Also is it not a parent's job to protect their children? I would take this also include monitoring their internet activity until they believe that the child can be trusted and is mature enough to know how handle this new freedom.
Well I could go on for some time, but I think I'll head to bed now.
Dave Chappelle and Naruto.
So looking around the internet for informative and interesting news. I found a few things that I believe will produce a positive response with my readers.
1) Samsung introduces its new phone. Some people are going as far as calling it the "iPhone killer". I remember just a few months ago when "experts" were calling Microsoft's Zune the "iPod killer", we all know how that turned out. Sure it might take a while for the Zune to pick up popularity but let us be honest, I don't think that it will ever become bigger than the iPod. Also these so called experts were predicting that Microsoft would have sold millions of Zunes in the first few months of its launch. I am not sure of the exact number of sold units but from what I have read it falls well below these inflated predictions.
2) While on the topic of iPods it should be noted that Carl Kruger, a Democrat from Brooklyn, is planning to introduce a resolution that would basically ban the use of iPods and other electronic devices on the streets of New York. He is claiming that people are spending too much time on these gadgets and as a result they are being placed at higher risk to receive traffic injuries. One comment a form user left was "...if a person would rather be indulged in listening to their Green Day album than paying attention when they cross the street, they deserve to get hit, before they have the change to take on any task of important, such as raising a child..." Since this story should be read I will provide a link to redirect you.
3) WHO WANTS $25M? Well this can be yours if you find a way to solve the "problem" of global warming. Personally I find it interesting that Richard Branson, a British billionaire, would offer such a prize for a person or organization to fix a problem that does not even exist. Come on, doesn't this guy watch the Colbert Report? Steven on his show clearly proved that global warming was created by the Democrats in order to distract us from the real issues. Such as how the rich need more tax cuts. As we all know, anything that comes out of Steven Colbert's mouth is automatically truth. He is basically Wikipedia in human form.
If you thought that I was actually serious before then there must be something wrong with you. That or you have never seen the Colbert Report. Well honestly I think this is a wonderful idea, now I have something else to do in the time between solving Millennium Problems which only offer a $1M prize.
Bravehearts - Quick to Back Down
This is truly amazing. Even though I am not able understand how it was done or how it will better benefit society, I know it is a major accomplishment.
"...In 1999, Dr. Hau headed a team of scientists that slowed light, which travels a brisk 186,282 miles a second when unimpeded, to a leisurely 38 miles an hour by shining it into an exotic, ultra cooled cloud of sodium atoms. At temperatures a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, the atoms coalesce into a single quantum mechanical entity known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. Shining a laser on the cloud tunes its optical properties so that it becomes molasses when a second light pulse enters it...."The rest of the article can be found at this url.
This weekend, well the whole week for that matter, was amazing. I'll spare you all the insignificant details and just start with Friday. Had test in both Numbers and Polynomials and Differential Equations. The Numbers and Polynomials was definitely the easier of the two. The test concisted of six questions and we only had to write proofs for five. However, if we choose to write proofs for all six he would choose the best five to give us credit for. The questions came straight from the book and other exercises that were covered in class. I am so glad that I not only did the proofs before they were covered in class but I also rewrote then when they were done by the professor. The Differential Equations test was also pretty easy, but sadly not as easy as the previously mentioned test. There were eight multiple choice questions and one open ended questions. The open ended on was easy, considering that he even told us in the previous class where it would come from. The multiple choice questions were also easy but I took my time because I didn't want to loose point for misbubbling or anything of that sort. There was one question on the multiple choice section where the answer I got was different from any of the selectable answers. Luckily I was able to just take the answer choices and just plug them (thanks to 4dyce) and use the other information provided by the problem in order to find the only solution that would work.
Later that day I went to Riker, I think, and played some pool with Jarred, Trina, Andrew, and Justin. Since most of us hadn't eaten since noon, and it was now about eight, we choose to go get something to eat. Once they food had entered our respective digestive tracts the real fun began. Bowling was comparable to an acid trip, ok really I don't know because I don't do drug but you get the idea. Jarred and I tied for second with a score of 109, he almost beat me but couldn't knock down that last pin. Then Andrew on his last chance decide to show us up and get a 112. So the game took longer than expected, as a result we missed the movie that we had originally planned to watch. At midnight Lance, Jarred, and I met some girls, I only remember 3 names, and we played Apples to Apples until about 3. Later back at my dorm I watched part of Ice Age 2, pretty funny.
When I finally woke up it was time to do some work so I shall spare you all the details of the hardcore study time. Finally it was time for the CASA Chinese New Years Event. The acts were amazing I am glad that I had the opportunity to attend. For personal and security reasons I will have to refrain from disclosing any of the events that took place at the CASA after party or what I did after that. However, if you would like an idea I guess you could go to facebook. Holy shit it is only Sunday. Well I woke up at 2:00pm. and spent the whole day studying and reading not much else went on.
Monday: I got a 50 on my Numbers and Polynomials test from Friday. Hell Yeah! Just so you know, the test was out of 50 so I got an 'A' not an 'E'.
That is what I would look like if I ever choose to make a guest appearance on South Park. Ask my sister if you would like the website to find out what you would look like. I would like you to know that you will not look as good as me, so don't be too disappointed.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
