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Showing posts from February, 2013

Artificial Hailstorm

On Tuesday I heard something very interesting on the news – some researchers were trying to make artificial hail! They thought that artificial hail is not very realistic when it’s made of pure frozen water. They made it from 80% seltzer water and 20% tap water. The seltzer water makes bubbles in the hail so that the hail will seem more realistic. Over four minutes, the researchers battered a house, a car, and some patio furniture. The house, car, and furniture were stationed on a spinning round turntable. The house’s roof was made of many different materials. Then, the researchers unleashed hailstones of various sizes at speeds of up to 76 mph. The project was sponsored by an insurance company because the company wanted to know which kind of material stood up the best to hail. The project itself cost around half a million dollars. I’m not sure the project was really worth it!

Google Now

The article “Google Now: Trading Your Privacy For The Future” describes Google Now, which is a new multifunctional service that vitalizes you . Google Now sorts through your searches, most visited sites, calendar entries, emails, and other private information. With this information, Now offers you deals, notifications, recommendations, coupons, and promotions for restaurants, stores, and hotels. It tells you the weather, traffic, distance to home, the fastest route to your destination, and your favorite sports team’s scores. This makes a positive impact on the world because it includes many services that do research, planning, and other things for you that save a lot of time. Google Now has already combined over 60 services. It can replace many applications, like Yelp and Foursquare. This eases data and app overload, reducing the amount of crashes. Google Now, with Voice Search, will dominate the mobile industry, according to most investors. Introducing Google Now – your new personal

My Opinion on NYT Article "Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway"

I have recently read a few articles regarding a Tesla car test drive. One article, by John M. Broder , the test driver and journalist for the New York Times, was about his horrible experience with the car and how he had cold times there. The second article, was by Elon Musk, Tesla chairman & CEO, defending the car with graphs from the car's data log. The final article, by Margaret Sullivan, another journalist for the NYT,  reviewed the problems of the test, but   defended John Broder by arguing that the results were honest. I think that John M. Broder , the test driver and journalist for the New York Times, was dishonest. Through Tesla’s diagrams, Broder clearly did lie about the temperature and charging. He said that he lowered the temperature in the car, but he actually raised it. He used up more power than he should have that way. Combined with the fact that he did not charge enough, it is obvious that the car did not meet expectations. He also clearly was dishonest on th