Catch a Tiger by the App

National Geographic is interested in keeping track of the last 3160 tigers left in the world.  Tigers are very elusive and tracking the big cats is often slow work.  So they are now scanning millions of tiger photos online and comparing the stripes and spots to recognize a set of markings and therefore identifying individual tigers.

You can help?  Check out the Tiger App at wildsense.org.

FBI's fight with Apple to unlock a terrorists iPhone

Now that it's been a month since the controversy between the FBI and Apple was reported, and some of the rhetoric and grand standing is over, I thought this story from UM's Computer Dept summed things up pretty good.

It explains exactly what the FBI is asking for

It explains why Apple doesn't want to do it

What it doesn't explain is why the FBI doesn't employ smart enough computer scientists to do in-house what they are asking of Apple.  This is not rocket science or brain surgery, it's hotter!



But it does demonstrate the trade-offs between privacy and security.  How much privacy are you willing to give up to feel secure?

Apple to get rid of headphone port on new iPhone!

According to numerous reports, Apple is said to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack from the upcoming iPhone 7. If so, headphones would then have to connect through the lighting port, also used for charging. By removing the 3.5mm headphone jack, Apple, could shave off another 1mm from its current iPhone. Is Apple making a big mistake? Will consumers hate the change? Consumers were not too happy when Apple changed to the lighting port, but over time people became accustomed to it. How will people react to this change?

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Full Report at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/01/21/apple-could-remove-headphone-jack-from-iphone-7/

New Planet - Posted for Hannah B

New Planet

Astronomers believe they have found a new plated beyond Pluto (which is no longer a planet). The new planet is about the size of Neptune and orbits the sun about every 15,000 years. This planet was detected by computers based off its gravitational pull it has on the other things around it, but still has not been seen. For years they have been trying to figure out what has been the source of this gravitational pull beyond Pluto. They have figured out that the coincidence of the chances of the gravitational pull not being a planet is about one in 15,000, or 0.007% chance. If computers can detect something that we didn’t even think was a possibility what else are they capable of?

Super Bowl 50

February 7th 2016 was the 50th super bowl, between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. According to Heavy.com, people voted on who would win the game. The polls shows that 51.18% of people (5,455 people) said that the Panthers were going to win the game. The other percentage 48.82% (5,203 people) said the Broncos would win. At the end of the game the final score was 24-10 and the Broncos took the win. Who would you vote for?

http://heavy.com/sports/2016/02/panthers-broncos-super-bowl-2016-50-poll-prediction-pick-consensus-voting-who-will-win/ 

The Mantis Shrimp.

The Mantis shrimp

The mantis shrimp is an unusual creature that can launch their raptorial appendages at the speed of a 22 caliber rifle with 1,500 newtons of force, causing an underwater shock wave. The mantis shrimp can also super heat the water around it when it launches its “murder sticks” means that the mantis shrimp is a destructive life form. The mantis shrimp could be used as a weapon with its adaptation and resilient limbs. Some researchers have been studying the mantis shrimps cell structure to make advance combat body armor. The mantis also can see in infrared, ultraviolet, and much more of the electromagnetic spectrum due to it having 16 different types of color-receptive cones.

Question: What if you could see like a mantis shrimp, what Would you see

The links:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/worlds-deadliest/deadliest-mantis-shrimp

The power of love

This article is about love from a psychological point of view. A lack of love can cause depression. Many people who are depressed have trouble loving too. Pop culture gives a distorted view of love. love is different from Limerance, which is a deep state of infatuation.




Check this web site

Hoverboards are real, sort of

Celebrities and TV shows have all been spotted showing the newest craze, "hoverboards".  They are not like the ones predicted in Back to the Future with Michael J. Fox in that they don't really hover at all.  They roll on the ground more like a Segway.

But the term "hoverboard" has stuck and they do look like a huge amount of fun to ride.

Except for the exploding batteries and the fact that you can fall off at 10 miles per hour and crack your head open....

Do you know anyone who has a hoverboard?  Have you ever ridden one?

The Games we Play

Here are 2 games my students play when they have some free time in class.  They are not the typical video games we all spend so much time playing, but they are educationally interesting websites that are fun to play with others in the room with you.

Spyfall is a game similar to Clue.  One person is a spy and the others are trying to guess who among them it is by asking questions the spy does not know.  My classroom gets kind of loud when we play.

GeoGuessr shows you a place on Google Earth and you have to guess the location.  You get points for how close your guess is.  It is addictive

And of course there is the WikiGame where you challenge each other to get from one Wikipedia topic to another either as fast as possible or with the least amount of clicks.

What other sites do you enjoy sharing with friends?

Death of Internet Explorer

Does anyone still use IE?  Well they probably shouldn't after Google releases their new Chrome update.  It promises to vastly increase download speeds (due to a new compression algorithm).

This is good news for mobile users because browsing will cost less in data usage and battery consumption!

So what browser do you use most?

Inflatable Hoodie

Inflatable Hoodie ?!?!!

OK, this isn't really "technology" but it's so cool I couldn't help myself.  I hear they are all the rage at colleges.