How to Power the Urban revolution

Today urban sprawl is far more popular then ever before, mwaning the production and source of energy will surely have to be altered in order to save our planet from catastrophic events. According to Gaia Vince, author of "How to Power the Urban Revolution," cities output about 80 percent if not more of global carbon emmissions and not to mention these cities consume an even more larger portion of global energy.
Well according to the authro mentioned above, the generation of electricity will begin to shift over to "user-owend." Now the large power stations will still remain although they will most likely have to make a change as well in order to slide right into the transition shift. No longer will communities, neighborhoods, and other privately owned building need to rely on the huge electricity corporation. Instead they will all have roof-top solar thermal panels, ground-source heat pumpps to heat water, and photovoltaic panels and wind turbines to provide electricty. Photovoltaic paint blinds and glass will be used on buildings to provide electricity from the sun's heat waves. Not to mention the garbage produced will also have its own purpose in producing energy.
The entire plan is constructed so cities will no longer need to be on a national grid, actually some towns and villages have already done it, mentioned Gaia Vince. To me all this is nothing but excitement ready to burst into experience. I am absolutely ready for this transformation considering Duke power is our only option at this time. After introducing new options I am sure price will have to reconstructed in order to play in the market world. having only one option available, Duke power physically has the power to name their own "reasonable" price.
A few other methods of producing electricity will be by the use of pavements, streets, stairs, and corridors in buildings that will most likely be 'fitted" with piezoelectric generators that charge up through footfall, stated Ville Kaajakarc who has a Ph.D and is an assistant professor at Louisiana Tech University. After doing some quick researching I finally understand how piezoelectric transucers generate electricity, simply through compression, which explains how engineers will be using streets, sidewalks and stairs in their projects.
Currently Paris produces electricty and heat by the passing trains and from the bodies of waiting communters in an underground metro station, which in turn is then used to heat the apartment block above it. The only major concern at the moment is how the excesses energy will be stored for future use. Several ideas have been brought to discussion but none have yet been confirmed perfect.
I believe within a decade most cities and neighborhoods, at least the newer ones, will have their own source of energy production. This will most likely be through the use of solar panels and the photovoltaic paint.
http://www.memsjournal.com/2010/04/microstructured-piezoelectric-shoe-power-generator-outperforms-batteries.html
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130418-how-to-power-the-urban-revolution/2

Ten extraordinary Pentagon mind experiments

The study and research of the brain has started to slowly evolve over years but just recently president Barak Obama has agreed to possibly announce an "initiative" that may add billions of dollars to the research of nueroscience, according to BBC news article. This means there will be more brain science, which should have been started long ago as oppose to spending money on other research such as ones that may not answer as many mysteries.
Scientist at Duke University have discovered how to connect the brains of two rats through the use of implanted electrodes, meaning the two brains could communicate to one another without the need of visual contact. Professor Miguel Nicholelis at Duke University said, " So basically, we are creating an organic computer that solves a puzzle." From this experiment new ideas begin to spark such as mind controlled drones and something more simple such as mind controlled prosthetic limbs. This all sounds ideal for war veterans and overall military use. This is because researches are trying to discover new ways to make combat easier on soldiers. For instance a study on ways to keep the brain alert even after days without any sleep. Currently these experiments are being sponsored by DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Right now they are working on goggles that have the capability to monitor a soldier's brain signal to in order to prevent threats that the conscious mind may have not spotted on time.
After reading through this article I started to wonder just how much longer we have before we will no longer be free thinkers. Brain control is a very frightening and delicate topic. I am wondering just how many people will allow a system to tap in their brain in order to control and possibly save their lives during battle. This then makes me wonder if our soldiers will still be considered soldiers or will they now be categorized by under lethal government robots. Honestly I am not sure if i support this type of work but I certainly would not prevent the research. The current status and progress is still to young to decline.

Electronic Warfare

Foreign Commander begins by forecasting a future attack in year 2025 towards the American navy. He describes the fighters as they will appear, " ground to dust the vaunted American Navy like the impotent clay figurines they had become." The commander then proceeds by explaining how the attacks on the navy are not going to be performed with bullets of mass destruction but in fact the attackers will be using invisible electromagnetic energy and cyber attacks that will be dropping drones down from the sky, leaving our city in a complete dark age.
Sounds pretty frightening to a civilian, considering we really cannot do much to seize the invisible attacks. Truth is this is a scene from an online war game known as MMOWGLI, Massive multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the internet. There are three elements of the US navy that are involved. Those three parts consist of the Navy Warfare Develpoment Command, the Office of Naval Research, and finally the Naval Postgraduate School. These programs invite players to help develop ideas for how the navy could begin to practice for these type of attacks. Attacks such as untraceable weapons that can possibly disable computers, satillites, aircrafts, and any forms of radar.
Right now the idea of electromagnetic cyber attacks are so critical to our national interests that we must start treating it as a warfighting domain on par with land sea air and space, said Admiral Jonath, who is chief of US Naval Operations.
Today we have the idea of EMP's Electromagnetic Pulse and Communication network. Some of these types of weapons in the US include weapons that are centralized around the same concept of a microwave but the only difference is the level of energy being used. The source of energy comes from very high powered generators. These types of weapons can stop vehicles on the spot and even take down enemy weapons.
As of right now civilians such as me and you are not capable of knowing just exactly what we ahve since all the work is practically classified. One of the unclassified weapons is known as the Radio Frequency Vehicle Stopper, this weapon is mounted on top of vehicles and is used to disable vehicles at far.
So back to MMOWGLI, this game is also classified and limited only to thos who have military or government emial account. This game is completely stratigical, there are no shoot them up scenes but instead players win points by submitting ideas on how to defend against one of these future EMP attacks, Players with the most likes and discussions win.
In all This seems like a win it all or lose it all scenario. When the time comes to face these problems in real time I hope we will have developed weapons that function best in defense for the sake of out people. Weapons programmed to strike may be less complex but will not secure victory. Victory begins with a greater defense strategy.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130404-invisible-weapons-go-into-battle

China Is Engineering Genius Babies

At BGI Shenzhen researches are currently undergoing new forms of genetic transformation in the lives of embyos. What they are trying to work on is the intelligence, increasing the IQ by 5 to 15 points. Researches gathered the DNA sample form the 2000 brightest people in the world and are studying their entire genomes in an attempt to identify the alleles which determine human intelligence. These researchers are only studying people with Chinese and European decent. In order to qualify you have to provide certain materials such as complete CV, any publications and all college standardized test scores. Once all this information has been gathered then a fertilized egg is divided into a few cells which can be sampled to figure out the expected intelligence. Some countries such as the United States believes this may interfere with the word of God, stating it may be a sin. Which is why we are way behind even though we have the same technical abilities and the same statistical capabilities.
Even though some disagree and state we should not be meddling with human nature, I disagree with that statement, considering God gave us the capability to process such complex scientific activity. If he did not want us doing such work then we would not have the ability to perform this type of work. Making our society better should be seen as a positive virtue for our society. If our societies overall IQ increased this would reduce maybe in vanish a series of world problems that we are currently undergoing such as famine and even war.

http://www.vice.com/read/chinas-taking-over-the-world-with-a-massive-genetic-engineering-program

Bill Gates Class Room of the Future

One of the most influential person in technology, Bill Gates, has a different vision in education. He envisions a classroom with less students and more technology. He believes that learning should be personilized to each student. Everybody has different methods of learning. Some students like to stydy by themselves and others like to be in study groups. Technology can help personalized the way each classroom is being taught. I already see technology influence some of my classes. By using blackboard or mymathlab.com helps me keep up with my assignments and also it helps me review for tests at my own pace. That is Bill Gate's point on being more hands on. Students learn more when they feel engaged in the course than just sitting through a leacture that many students don't remember. That also discourages some students from even attending the class. That's why Bill Gates is investing on involving more technology in the classroom. He wants to see a better tomorrow.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/08/technology/innovation/bill-gates-education/index.html

The Future of Entertainment

According to an article posted on pcworld, the next being thing in the world of entertainment, made especially for those who always lose their remotes, will be happy to know that gesture based remotes are beginning to spill out into the market. Even though the movements and use are not yet that broad, people can still use it to pause, play, and select through different media, such as movie play back. Right now the leading company to use this type of technology is Toshiba, which is on their Qosmio G55 laptop. The way it works can almost be compared to the playstation move which allows you to play video games without the use of a controller. So in other words all new entertainment gear will be equipped with a special camera that will be trained to recognize certain movements. An example of a gesture used to stop or pause a movie or song would be the same gesture used to signal someone to stop using their hand. This type of technology will be associated into all types of technology including laptops, televisions, game consoles, and other similar products. Later in the future the technology will develop into a more complex system where one will be able to manage more than just media with their own gestures. For example one will be able to browse the web and explore with simple hand movements. So those pesty controllers that are always being lost will no longer be a hassle. http://www.pcworld.com/article/152683/tech.html?page=5#9

Seeing Is Touching Technology

At the school of fundamental science and engineering,Waseda Univeristy, Professor Takashi is currently performing a research where cross-modal perception technology is used to develop multi-sensory integration where participants undergo tactile sensation from visual to experience media in a whole new way. The secret behind this technology is just right behind a pair of glasses, well a unique pair of glasses that displays an image. During this time the participant must use a transparent head-mounted display which displays an image that must be seen in space, meaning the object needs to be floating and not against something. But most importantly the object needs to make contact with some natural part of the human body such as the hands. Researchers believe this new system will be useful for patients undergoing or considering rehabilitation as well as training and education.

http://www.diginfo.tv/v/13-0005-n-en.php

Drone technology takes off Technology

http://newsstream.blogs.cnn.com/category/technology/
http://newsstream.blogs.cnn.com/category/technology/

According to Led Grossman, a senior writer, states the technological expansion of Drones and the use of Drones are evoloving rapidly. The use is not inly centralized around killing and raging through civilizations in Yemen and Pakistan but are now being utilized for other purposes, such as surviellence, patroling boarders, photography for hollywood producers and even in an evnironmental way. Environmentalist are considering using drones in order to help protect endangered species. Which to me this seems a little ridiculous because extintion is a natural on going factor in life. We really shouldnt try to save all our endangered species unless they can be used to aid the human population. Although that is not my concern. So back to techological advances. In the past 10 years smart phones and 3d printing have completely transformed all technoloical approaches, considering now we have controllable flying robots through the idea of smart phones. Today with the use of drones we can exert force at almsot zero risk with little budget compared to flying conventional fighter jets. The only down side about this, is having the death rate of civilains increase due to accidents and wrong readings. Also a great question that Led Grossman brought up is,"what is the moral code of sending drones to a country where we are not even in war with?" I do believe this would some how break the conduct of privacy since we would be invading for no reason, unless it is for the protection of our
own civilians, which could always be argued.

Technology

I am choosing to cover technology throughout the semester because globally this is something that is constantly changing at rapid speeds. Technology is actually transforming so quickly that one can easily fall behind if they do not stay on top of the current events, even if one believes to be up to date just because they are currently using the most advance phone in their market does not mean they are using the most technological device world wide. There is a huge difference between what is most advanced in one's origin and what is most advanced world wide. By having to blog about this topic I hope to stay as current as possible in order to move along with the rest of the world. Being left behind in this new technological world is actually one of my worst nightmares, I could not imagine how anyone would be able to operate knowing there are other humans who are capable of much more just because they are traveling at the same speeds of the most accurate and advanced technology.

Juan Eduardo House Hernandez (Edward)