We use machines and systems to solve problems and assist us by performing specific tasks. Here we discuss how low- and high-level technology affects our ability to control, communicate within, and adapt to our environment.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed in the US House of Representatives by a vote of 288 – 127. As a refresher in government 101, the bill would have had to pass the Senate and get President Obama’s signature before it could become a law. To update, in a nutshell the case is closed.… [Read more]
Congress has been busy…not passing gun control legislation, mind you, but busy all the same. While national attention was focused elsewhere during this week, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed in the US House of Representatives by a vote of 288 – 127. The bill must pass the Senate, and overcome President Obama’s threat to veto on the Act on civil liberties grounds, before it becomes law.… [Read more]
Budgets reflect priorities. As a nation we often state that our priorities begin and end with the health, safety and well-being of citizens, especially our children as they are represent the future of the country. Education is part of ensuring well-being, and a well-educated populace enables the nation to compete globally among developing countries that are rapidly advancing their social agendas that are supported, in large part, by their technological developments.… [Read more]
In Part 1 of this series, I wrote about allowing my three-and-a-half-year old have access to many different screens and how we monitor it.… [Read more]
I’m just an average man with an average life
I work from 9 to 5, hey, hell I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone and
I always feel like somebody’s watchin’ me
And I have no privacy
Oh, oh, oh, I always feel like somebody’s watchin’ me
Tell me is it just a dream
I always feel like somebody’s watchin’ me
And I have no privacy
Oh, oh, oh, I always feel like somebody’s watchin’ me
Tell me is it just a dream*
Those lyrics came to mind when the story of the Raytheon Corporation’s latest development was revealed.… [Read more]
Before we get started, I’d like you to picture university science professors in your head. Now, what did you see? Maybe they’re messy and disheveled, with unkempt hair and an untucked, wrinkled shirt. Perhaps they are more meticulous in appearance and have on a crisp, starched button-down with a pocket protector. Maybe they’re carrying the tools of their trade: a graphing calculator, a protractor, a clipboard full of data and equations.… [Read more]
My son is three and a half years old. He has used my husband’s tablet, my Nook, both of our phones, a laptop, and the wii. He has his own Leap Frog and a V-tech tablet. Yet, he spends most of his day having tea parties or playing trains or running around outside.
Some people are horrified at the number of “screens” my son can manipulate and use.… [Read more]
Imagine being able to deconstruct the vast subject of economics into three major principles or theories. The first theory is that the global population has a duty to the global economy. This viewpoint holds that the economy lives and dies based on the habits of the peoples of Earth. If we want economic prosperity – if we want the economy as a whole to continue to exist – then it is up to the individual consumer to step up and perform his or her worldly duty of infusing said market with capital.… [Read more]
“We the people…” Those three words are from the preamble for one of the most powerful governing documents ever written. While those few words don’t assign power, they speak to what citizens can accomplish when we work together and hone our focus. And when we have the right tools, our collective focus may have a significantly greater impact.… [Read more]
In the future it is possible we will no longer be educated by human beings. As technology progresses, computers will surpass our capabilities of instruction and logical analysis, thereby offering a sentience possibly beyond our control; science estimates within 100 years this will occur. This means that computers, not humans, could be those in the best position to teach.… [Read more]
There’s a lot of fear-mongering going on in the world right now. So, I am going to preface this article by telling you not to worry. Don’t get upset. Don’t panic. Maybe, just maaaaaaybe, be a little concerned. Why? Because, earlier this year, Christian Paetsch robbed a Wells Fargo bank in Aurora, Colorado.
This is not a public service announcement about banking safety.… [Read more]
NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, costs taxpayers about half a penny annually. Allow reiteration of this statement to resonate: NASA costs you less than a penny every year in taxes. Evidence supports that Americans could easily be persuaded to dig deep and pay that extra half penny a year to aid in keeping such a visionary program operational.… [Read more]
I have been “on the internet” (if you count e-mail) since before most of my students were born.
(Side note: Holy Moses. How can that be true?? I am so youthful! Ahem.)
In college (late 90′s/early 00′s), I had my first website — a sample teaching site I created using DreamWeaver that I thought was amazing (it was not, and I never used it again).… [Read more]
A young lady holds up her favorite writing pen she likes to use. It is a black ink pen with a plastic body, a metal spring component, and a rubber sleeve next to the tip for finger comfort. She looks at the pen, and decides that she wants another just like it, so she locates the manufacturing code issued to this pen and enters it into a field box on her smartphone.… [Read more]
This isn’t exactly a revelation: I’m a nerd. And a science geek. And I like math because unlike far right extremists numbers make sense. Don’t judge…There are many of us, and we’re roaming freely among you.
We’re the women who watched reruns of the original Star Trek (live long and prosper!) and Battlestar Galactica when we were young girls.… [Read more]
I was just lying in bed (or rather, the tiny mattress on the floor that serves as my bed) in a daze, wondering how the hell I’m supposed to cough up a page about the topic I chose for this week: Is social media making us less social? It’s not that I don’t know what to say about this, it’s just me being neurotic.… [Read more]
