Well, technology has advanced again. This time, JINS, a Japanese manufacturer, has developed a pair of smart glasses that could help predict when you’re about to nod off! They called these glasses the Meme, and will launch in Japan in 2015 at a starting price of $685. The Meme uses eye and motion tracking to figure out when you’re tired, and once they know you are sleepy, it will send a notification to your phone via a companion app and a buzz in your pocket. This device also sports fitness features such as calorie counting and step tracking. How do you think this compares to the Google Glass? Do you think people would actually buy this product?

The first thing I took away from this course was definitely the mind maps. It’s similar to the “main idea” branches that I learned and used in elementary and middle school. It’s also the only thing that was used or mentioned in almost every class ever since the second class of the semester. I can use it when I am writing papers where I have to elaborate on a subject!

The second thing that I learned in this class was the lecture and activity on cookies. Not only did it make me paranoid about the internet and how it tracks all your websites, it also helped my browser filter out the links that I wouldn’t look at. I like how it can cater to my interests and I can use it to my advantage when I need to look up information about a certain topic for my other classes.

The last activity I really learned a lot about was the library database. If I had papers to write, I would always count on google and yahoo for information. But, since I am taking two library classes and my psychology capstone course this semester, I had to utilize the library database for scholarly journals and primary sources to write my papers. It definitely helped me a lot.

As for the one thing I wish we covered in class that would’ve helped me in other classes, I’m not sure. But I do wish that we did more hands on activities like the crazy post-its on the professor or when we learned how search engines worked. That was fun.

I found this interesting as team 1 just made their presentation about flash mobs and protests.

As the basketball playoffs continue, a silent protest broke out before the game between the Clippers and Golden State Warriors. The owner of LA Clippers, Donald Sterling, made racist comments during a conversation with his girlfriend and eventually led to the woman stating that he has a whole team of black people playing for him. He responded “You just, do I know? I support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them? Do I know that I have – who makes the game? Do I make the game, or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners that created the league?”

This controversy and negativity floating around the team became a distraction for the Clippers. To make a unified statement, they all tossed their warm-up jackets with the Clippers name on the front to midcourt and then warmed up with their shooting shirts inside out so the word “Clippers” are not across their chest. Do you think the team made a good statement by doing a silent protest? How effective do you think it was?

No, not the pork bacon. Kevin Bacon.

On Tuesday, we spoke about chapter 9 and within that chapter, there was a mention about six degrees of separation. In high school, my teacher made us read a play on six degrees of separation and showed us a website that linked Kevin Bacon to numerous actors/actresses within 6 people.

I’ve put in actors/actresses from the US, Hong Kong, UK, Russia and even Hungary and Turkey…and they all show a link! If you want to try it out, here is the website. It’s fun to try to find someone that he isn’t linked to.

How advanced does your toothbrush have to be? Oral-B, a dental manufacturer has created a “smart toothbrush” along with an app on your phone that shows you how long you have been brushing for and how well you’re brushing. You get real-time feedback for two minutes – the amount of time each brushing session should be. When you finish, the app will rate you based upon time and distribution and even give you a score (either a frowny face or a trophy)!

It is definitely a cool invention in the dental and technological world but, is it necessary? How effective do you think this toothbrush and app will be? What are the chances of this becoming the next new trend?

Maybe in a few years, we will have robots to brush our teeth.

As I was heading to class in the 23rd building, I was targeted by a young man with a red beanie. “RED BEANIE!! You’re wearing a red beanie, I’m wearing a red beanie”, he yelled out. Then he started to captivate me by talking about this nonprofit organization that is aimed to help women and children who are not as well off on the other side of the world. This nonprofit organization was called Care. As he went on to explain how I could contribute, he had his ipad out with a form ready to be filled out. I thought I was doing a good deed so I opted for the highest amount. I donated without hesitation even though he said it was a monthly contribution.

When I got home, I did some research on this organization and looked up how to cancel this monthly contribution/PAD (pre-authorized debit). You can get more information about PAD here.

If you would like to donate to this cause, you can visit:
http://www.care.org/donate
The other plus side is that you will get an income tax receipt for the sum of your contributions so you could use that when you file taxes!

There is a huge connection to this course mainly because of technology and information. When asking for donations, the marketer would have a page that’s already set up for you to fill out your personal information. They usually have a lot of ways to persuade you to act on what they want – forming a large group of donors all with one thing in common. Donating has been made easier and more efficient with the use of credit and debit cards instead of taking cash. It also shows the ease of completing forms online or on the computer instead of filling out everything by hand. You can easily find information online related to the things you are curious about, in this case, I searched about PAD. This can also relate to Clay Shirky’s idea of transaction costs. The difference in the costs between doing everything by hand and filling it out online is the time and materials wasted. Why use the old tradition of pen and paper when you can do everything with a click of a button?

I know there are a lot of people who watched The Walking Dead and are excited for the series to return. But there has been a video surfing around on Youtube by amc which shows walkers underneath the city in Union Square scaring pedestrians as they walk over them. If you were walking there last friday morning, maybe you were one of the people getting scared! Well, it was very amusing to watch because everyone finds humor in watching people get scared. Though, if I was there, I’d probably get a heart attack or curse nonstop. This prank was all done to promote the return of the Walking Dead on Sunday, February 9th (tomorrow). Do you think it was a great way to promote a return of a series? How effective do you think it was?

It was definitely memorable for the people who witnessed and experienced it.