In 2009 Boeing created a cargoplane that had a laser beam mounted on it. The type of plane is a C-130H. This thing is nuts. It is supposed to be able to pick a target from literally miles away and melt or make it explode with [...]]]>

Imagine this plane with a laser beam attached to it

In 2009 Boeing created a cargoplane that had a laser beam mounted on it. The type of plane is a C-130H. This thing is nuts. It is supposed to be able to pick a target from literally miles away and melt or make it explode with a huge laser beam. I couldn’t believe it when I read this cool article on popsci.com. This is the kind of thing that I would expect to see in a science fiction movie. But I guess this airplane/laserbeam combo is real. It is supposed to be able to melt tanks! Now that’s impressive. This is a more precise weapon than a big bomb because it uses a computer to target specific things. There is less collateral damage. I personally think this is a great idea. WE DEFINITELY NEED MORE LASER BEAMS. When I read that American companies are mounting giant chemical based laser beams on cargo planes I felt both proud and at-ease. Proud because lasers are the future, in both medicine and warfare. And I felt at-ease because I’m glad

we got the laser beams first.

The whole idea of putting a laser on a airplane that is combat effective does several positive things. First and foremost it pushes the envelope on multiple technologies at the same time. For starters mounting a huge laser is a tricky endeavor because big lasers are generally pretty heavy. Also making a laser that is powerful enough to do serious damage is an excellent feat of engineering. This type of technology could easily be adapted for other non-military purposes. These could include space based lasers or advanced laser communication and energy transmission. It is forward thinking like the Advanced Tactical Laser that is paving the way for more advanced and powerful technology.

Another interesting thing about the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is that it is supposed to be able to fire both lethal and non-lethal attacks. So if you needed air support in a situation you might be able call in an ATL and stun your enemies. What if your commander had more than one ATL under his command and was able to corral a large force of enemies into a confined space using non-lethal laser fire and then dispatch them with a critical strike? There’s a lot you could do with an ATL.

Since the space program hasn’t been getting a whole ton of attention lately since the funding got pulled back, it is really good to see that there are advanced technological innovations happening in the military. I wonder if the ATL could be adapted to having different modes of beam-fire-focus so it could penetrate hardened targets like bunkers.

Here are the multiple sources used in making this article:

C-130H Laser Gunship Program begins, by Mike Hanlon-Gizmag.com : http://www.gizmag.com/go/5118/

Advanced Tactical Laser, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Tactical_Laser

How It Works: The Flying Laser Cannon, on POPSCI.com, by Eric Adams: http://www.popsci.com/node/19965

-Tyler

This is how I made 25 dollars with my blog. There are three main factors in making $25 with your blog: patience, content and adaptation. The reason why I say you will make $25 “with” your blog instead of making the money from, or “off” your blog is [...]]]>

How to make 25 dollars with your blog

This is how I made 25 dollars with my blog. There are three main factors in making $25 with your blog: patience, content and adaptation. The reason why I say you will make $25 “with” your blog instead of making the money from, or “off” your blog is because you need to imagine that your blog is your friend. This isn’t a garden that you will plant ideas into and watch them grow. Your blog is like a sentient friend that if you listen closely to the statistics and data that it tells you, you will succeed in earning 25 dollars. The reason why I say patience is the first factor is because as your blog grows, you will start out with only a few visitors. Since the techniques on making money on blogging discussed are based solely on Google AdSense revenue, you will notice that your advertisements will only generate a few cents per click in the beginning of your endeavor. Fortunately, over time your blog will grow in viewership and your advertisements will gain value per click. Don’t worry, we will go into this in much greater detail later in the article. The second important factor mentioned is content. Content is basically the flesh and blood of your blog. Without content you will have no information for AdSense to crawl through in order to make your advertisements. For this article, the content that we will be focusing is text content in the form of online articles, consisting of well written posts that are interesting and that are about 500 to 2,000 words long. Again, we will discuss content much more later. The final factor is adaptation. Adaptation is the brain of your blog. By paying close heed to the statistical information that you glean from your blog, you will start to notice trends in what article people enjoy reading the most. What articles generate the most clicks. Which articles people spend the most time reading. And most importantly, what kind of articles people read and then choose to stay on your website and read other content. Over time you will begin to understand that some things that you have to say are contributions to your blog that increase its uniqueness and style . And there are some articles that increase your advertising revenue. This article will help you in creating your blog. And if you already have a blog and you are thinking of monetizing it, this article will help you strategize your plan for profitability. This is a long article.

The first step in making 25 dollars with your blog is to first create your blog. To do this you will need a few things. First you will need a domain name. There are many places that work for purchasing domain names. I use godaddy.com for the overidon.com domain. When purchasing a domain, I recommend that you choose a privacy option that keeps your personal information secret. That way people telemarketers and thieves will have a more difficult time in learning your important personal information. The next step is to get web hosting for the files of your blog. Choosing web hosting is very important because there are many options and not every web hosting company is good for blogs. A few things to use as guidelines are: Make sure that the hosting you use is between $80 – $200 per year. If it is too much cheaper than that, I’d be concerned that they aren’t providing all the bandwith and features you need. And if the price is more expensive than than you are probably just getting ripped off. Make sure that the web hosting you are using is an Unlimited bandwith plan, and that you can store at least 50,000 files on your server. Another thing to make sure of is that you are allowed to store at least 50 to 100  gigabytes of space or more. Any less than that are you may have problems long term. A KEY THING to remember to check is that the web hosting provider gives you “MySQL” database technology. And the web hosting must also be compatible with PHP code. Another important factor is that you need to make sure that the web hosting provides statistical information on your blog. We use AWStats and that works great for information on hits, views, unique visitors, incoming and outgoing links and much more information.

Now that you have your domain and your web hosting it is time to set up your blog. We use wordpress to run overidon.com. WordPress is a free blog program. Now at this point, you should ask yourself if you are an advanced computer user or if you are not. Because if you do not consider yourself to be an advanced computer user you should stop here and find a friend to help you with this project or else hire someone who is going to be the technical guy or gal for your blog. If you do consider yourself to be computer savvy and are able to install programs, manipulate files, edit some basic code, and troubleshoot…then by all means read on and enjoy. After you get the version of WordPress that you need for your operating system, you should browse the many free themes that are available for download by clicking here and visiting the wordpress theme directory. The analogy works like this: WordPress is the skeleton and flesh, and the theme is the skin and the face of your blog. Without a good looking theme your blog will look very ordinary and plain. When choosing a theme make sure to get one that allows for good plugins and Meta tagging. I’m not going to tell you the theme we use because I don’t want you to copy me thanks. There are several guides on how to set up your wordpress blog and themes. But you can click here for a place to start. HERE IS A SUPER IMPORTANT TIP: When you read the option, “Do you want this blog to be searchable by robots, or Google or other search engines?” Make sure to click the box that says “YES!” I can’t stress this point enough. If you don’t do this you will miss the entire point of this article.

Ok,  your blog is set up and you have customized your header image. Now is a good time to go into the settings area of the blog and configure the blog name, your blog description, and make sure to review every option that your wordpress blog has available in order to familiarize yourself. The same goes for your theme as well. A good header image can really make your blog stand out and will set the tone of your blog. Here would be a good time to remind you of the first important factor in making your 25 dollars with your blog, patience. If you take your time with these beginning steps and really take pride in your header image, people will notice and will be more inclined to come back and visit. Don’t skimp on this step. Remember you can always change it later.

Now the fun part begins, your first post and the beginning of your content. At this point you may be thinking, “Wait? Don’t I want to make money from my blog? Shouldn’t I set up Google AdSense at this point?” The answer is no. You should wait until you have written at least twenty posts or articles that have at least 500 to 2000 words. The reason for this is because Google does a quick preliminary check of your blog to see if it is worthy of AdSense. So if you blog is a porno site or has objectionable material of any kind then Google will definitely reject you. Also if you blog just looks like a piece of junk and has no content, you will probably get rejected as well. So that’s why we recommend that you post at least 20 interesting article of decent size. This is important: When writing your articles in wordpress, make sure to categorize your articles under appropriate categories. This will make navigation of your blog much easier for your visitors. Another thing to discuss is the “Custom Fields” area when you finish each article. Before you click the “Publish” button make sure to enter the custom fields. Here’s what you do for each one. Make sure to press the “add Custom Field” button after you enter the information. It should pop up and save after you press the button. For the  “…body title” field enter in the exact title of your blog article exactly as it is in your blog post.  For the “…body title_saved” field type in “1″. For the “…meta_description” field copy the first 5 sentences or so from your post into that field. For the “…meta_keywords” field (IMPORTANT) enter up to 10 or so keywords that appear in your article that either appear frequently, or that are very key and important elements to the post. This is probably the most important Custom Field because it will directly affect several factors like, google searchability and Google Adsense advertisement relevance. For example, if you have key words about puppies and kittens in this Custom Field, and your article is about the different types of tornadoes in the the Midwest United States, then your article will have a hard time showing up on the first page of Google, and your AdSense advertisements will probably be about cats and puppies. So when someone reads your article they will generally ignore your advertisements and you will have trouble getting clicks on your ads and therefore will generate little revenue. The final Custom Field is, “…meta_title” in this field make sure to enter the exact same information that was in your blog title and the “…body_title” field. If you put other information in here you will have unexpected results.

But what am I supposed to talk about? Well, that’s really up to you. Remember, there are literally tons of blogs out there so my advice to you is to write about what you are passionate about and what you know. If you are a humble and knowledgeable person then you should consider writing a blog that has a lot of information and research and hypothesis. If you are an opinionated and passionate person then consider writing about your ideas and why you are right all the time. If you are an enthusiast about something like anything from video games to climate change to makeup styles. Then you might want to talk about that in your blog. Just remember to not break any laws with your blog that may get you or your friends in trouble. Don’t do any copyright infringement or libel or pornography stuff. Basically if you use your brain and use common sense and ask professionals when you are about to enter a gray area ethically, you should have a fun blog that won’t get you into trouble.

One thing to consider is that most people read blogs to be entertained mostly and educated slightly. This is important because you can use this fact to your advantage. Let your personality shine through with every sentence and people will eventually have an affinity to your charm and wit and eventually you will have repeat visitors and subscribers to your RSS feed. If you don’t like reading your blog. Then it is a sure bet that no one else will either. So write when you really have something to say and try to use comfortable yet readable grammar. Spell check is always a plus.

After I write each article I make sure to copy the body of the post into a Microsoft Word document and save it. This is a smart idea because it serves as both an emergency backup of your information as well as a pat on the back and trophy of a job well done. Every couple months or so you should back up your entire blog database, and your entire website FTP information. Here’s a good guide on how to backup your wordpress database.

So now that you have written over 20 solid posts with interesting articles in them, it is time to set up Google AdSense for your blog. Search Adsense into Google in order to get started. It is pretty self-explanatory and google will walk you through each step of the way. The whole process of them reviewing your website and then you eventually getting access to their ads takes about a week or less. But once it is set up it is very worth it. Once you are approved and you have all the AdSense information it is time for you to setup Google Analytics. This software IS so amazing. If you use Google Analytics in conjunction with AWstats you will have the third key factor, adaptability. When you look at your statistics on what people are reading the most and what articles are generating the most revenue, you will be able to fine tune your writing style and become a more profitable blog. There are a few plugins that work well in conjunction with wordpress and Google Analytics. Overidon.com uses, “Google Analytics for WordPress” for this purpose.

When you read statistical information in Google Analytics, remember that your blog is only as good as your last 30 day period. If you drop in viewership because you haven’t posted an article in months, then you will need to earn and entice new readers to visit your blog. So a good habit to make is to write consistently and as often as your day job permits. And always write articles that you are proud of. If you write a garbage article that has little content value then your readers will notice immediately and you will have wasted a first impression that could have earned you a subscriber to your RSS feed. So make every sentence count and take ownership of your voice. People want to get to know you through both your style and your information, so share yourself in your blog but be mindful of your privacy and safety at all times.

Now here is the exciting part, promoting your articles. The writers for overidon.com have Facebook and twitter accounts. And we post links to our articles on those social media networking sites in order to gain exposure and entertain the world. You don’t have to promote every article you write. But it is generally a good idea to share links of your work on your Facebook page if you have the time. This is a quick way to gain readers to the blog. (IMPORTANT) Don’t post your links to your blog on your friend’s pages. That quickly annoys people especially if your blog is pretty rough. If you post links to your articles on your own Facebook page and you have enough friends that communicate with you, there is a small percentage chance that your friends will see your article link on their “Status Update” feed. So there really is no need to go around and spam your articles on other peoples’ pages. Also you can get in trouble with Facebook if you abuse it, some penalties include having your account suspended among other things. But I have found that if I post my articles on my page my friends generally read them and they give feedback on the articles that interest them. When a friend gives feedback on an article you write, whether it is a Facebook “thumbs up” or a comment on your blog, try your best to engage that person and make it clear that you genuinely appreciate their interaction and their opinions. Remember, people have millions of websites and blogs that they could read, so if someone shares their mind about your work, whether or not if it is a positive comment or harsh criticism, show your appreciation and interest. This is the fastest way to gain popularity, new readers, as well as increase the value of your advertisements by maximizing the volume of visitors and pageviews for each individual article.

If you remember anything from this article then it should be this: Encourage your friends to read your articles…but DO NOT ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS TO CLICK ON YOUR ADS. If you try and trick Google by getting your friends to click your ads you can get into big trouble with Google. If someone genuinely likes an advertisement that they see on your blog and clicks on it, that’s fine. But Google tracks the IP addresses of clicks of the ads so they can tell if you are trying to cheat them.

So what is more important…the number of clicks you get, or the number of pageviews for each article? The answer is two-fold. If your article gets lots of pageviews and visitors, then the value of each ad will go up. This means that if you wrote an article about fishing and your keywords are set up properly, your ads may be about bait and fish food or fishing spots. If you get only a handful of views on that article, then a click will probably only be worth a few cents. But if you get hundreds or even thousands of views on that article then a single click could be in the dollar amount, perhaps higher. On the same token, the more clicks you get from different people then more successful ad clickthroughs will be  registered to your AdSense account and you will gain more money. So the ideal scenario would be for your articles to have very high amounts of viewers and pageviews AND lots of clicks. If you find you have an article that fits this, and is getting clicks often, then make a note of it and try and figure out what you are doing right in this article. Sometimes the most unexpected articles will be the big profit generators. Likewise, if you find that certain articles rarely get views and almost never get ad clicks, then you should still keep the article on the site, because it is still content. But keep a mental note of the writing style and content that is in the article and try not to constantly talk about the same stuff in that unproductive article. But remember to stick with your integrity and style. Sometimes saying what is important to you and the world, however unpopular that may be, can be the kind of article that sets you apart from other blogs that discuss similar topics. Another thing to consider is that just because an article isn’t yielding many visitors or clicks now, doesn’t mean that the post won’t attract people in the future. You could be way ahead of the times in your thinking or the delivery of your message. Stick to your guns. You will be surprised on how effective an honest voice can be.

We’ve covered a great deal of important issues so far in this article. But there is still something we haven’t talked about: How long is this going to take in order for me to make 25 dollars with my blog? The answer to that is entirely up to you and your readers. For the case of overidon.com, I started posting articles in the current format and style that you see now, in August of 2009. Even though I created the website, overidon.com back in 2004 it wasn’t a blog for large-scale distribution of information and entertainment. Also it didn’t have advertisements until Novenmber 2009. That being said, you could say that it has taken overidon.com one year to earn $25 in Google Adsense ad revenue. That may seem like a long time, and it is. But the reality is, that I did not post articles every day by a long-shot. In fact, there are only 250 articles currently on overidon.com, and not all of them are the recommended 500 word length. If I did post articles every day and made sure they were high quality, I definitely think we would have hit the $25 mark much sooner. The whole process of becoming a blog that generates advertising revenue for overidon.com has been a real learning experience for me and I have loved every minute of it. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see the Google Analytics graphs show growth in viewership. It is amazing to look at the map of the world and find out that there are people in London and India that are enjoying the blog and sometimes spending several minutes reading articles. That’s the whole fun of monitoring your statistics. It really makes you feel connected to your readers. Here are some ways that you can make sure to speed up the process of your blog becoming more popular: Have lots of friends that like your writing and your ideas and tell them about your blog. Write as often as you can without sacrificing the quality and/or uniqueness of your content. Have fun writing articles and show that excitement and enjoyment with your writing. People can tell when you are having a great time with your ideas.

If your blog becomes popular enough and you are charismatic, you may attract other writers who want to become authors and post original content to your blog. This is a very important decision to make, so do not make it lightly. Letting someone write for your blog is kind of like letting someone borrow your house, or do surgery on you. There is a great deal of trust that is involved and you need to have an excellent relationship in order to make it work. Make sure to be extremely honest with your colleague when he or she does or does not join your blog. Take all the necessary steps in order to communicate your expectations for their writing and clearly state any financial details regarding compensation, either monetary or intellectual, for their work and participation. Overidon.com is extremely fortunate to have an established writer, create the weekly humor series, “The Life and Times of Car Johnson.” We get along great and the articles make an excellent addition to overidon.com and the blog wouldn’t be the same without it. When working with other writers, respect and honesty are key. Don’t expect your fellow writers to be able to read your mind and tell them when something needs to be changed or deleted, or if you want to see more content from them. Lose your ego and focus on the success of your blog and you will make a fine editor/blogger/web publisher.

The final and most important thing to know about how to make 25 dollars with your blog is this: Keep your day job. There is something special about working all day at your job and then “coming home” to your blog and doing, “what you really want to do.” Did you notice that? You are now blogging as a form of enjoyment. Once you quit your day job and blog full time, your blog will become your job. And at that time things won’t really be the same anymore. You won’t be writing as a form of escape or release anymore. So if you keep your day job, not only will you be more financially stable, but you will also have pent up energy that you can unleash on your keyboard.

What about Google AdWords? Shouldn’t I advertise for my blog in order to get more clicks? That is kind of a backwards question. Think about it for a minute. You are writing for your blog in order to MAKE money, not to exert more expenses. Currently overidon.com doesn’t spend any money on Google AdWords. The reason for this is because this website only has 250 articles. When we have 1,000 or more articles I will consider investing in AdWords in order to increase traffic to the site. But the reality is, I don’t want to distort my visitor statistics by getting people who click on an ad to visit this site and only stay for a short time because it isn’t exactly what they are looking for. In order to have AdWords be profitable for you, make sure that you have a tremendous amount of content and a steady influx of visitors and traffic. This will ensure that your AdSense advertisements have a high value when clicked. Because the amount of money you pay Google for a pay-per-click using Google AdWords, should never exceed the amount of revenue you generate from YOUR AdSense advertisements with each successful click. This may be confusing so here’s an analogy. Let’s say you sell ice cream cones for $1 each. If I am an advertiser and I can get ten people to visit your shop for $2 each group of ten people, then you need to sell at least two ice cream cones to each batch of people to make my advertising worth it.

Now you should be well equipped with the knowledge you need in order to make 25 dollars with your blog. If you want to talk about anything in this article or about anything really, leave a comment or let’s talk on Facebook.

-Tyler Stansfield Jaggers

August 26th, 2010

www.overidon.com

Let’s tax all Caffeine products 10% and then use that money to pay for junior colleges across the USA. Consumers as a whole spend literally millions of dollars per day on caffeinated sodas, coffee products, tea,  and chocolate. If we taxed that just 10% and invested that money into junior colleges, our economy would [...]]]>

Caffeine Tax

Let’s tax all Caffeine products 10% and then use that money to pay for junior colleges across the USA. Consumers as a whole spend literally millions of dollars per day on caffeinated sodas, coffee products, tea,  and chocolate. If we taxed that just 10% and invested that money into junior colleges, our economy would benefit tremendously. The reason why we should put the money into junior colleges is because they are the bottleneck in the education system. People of all ages use junior colleges either to prepare for a 4 year university, get training necessary for the general workforce, vocational training, enrichment, or other reasons. But I know from experience that even the most popular and well funded junior colleges are experiencing massive cutbacks in both teacher salaries, and class availability. If the USA pumped money into the junior college system there would be several benefits.

First of all, when people are in school they are usually busy with school, and don’t have as much free time to get themselves into trouble. By augmenting junior colleges, creating new scholarships and greater class availability, America would be increasing opportunities for people. A glimmer of hope can go a long way for an otherwise idle person.

Second of all, there are less jobs. And the jobs that do exist either require more skills, more education, or more experience. Junior college can at least help with the skills and education parts.

The painful part of this idea would be paying 10% more for soda or coffee. As a caffeine drinker myself I share in your suffering. But the reality is, if I am willing to fill up my Starbucks card with $50 every month or so, then I have some money. That money may or may not be disposable income…but I sure am spending it like it is. So I might as well invest in my own country’s best interest. And that’s really what I’m talking about. Investing in the best thing for our own country right now. And are teachers overpaid? …maybe, I don’t know. Is there tons of democracy in the junior college education system, and will most of the money generated by a caffeine tax gets abused or wasted or worse? …probably, but just because our education system is flawed doesn’t mean that we should let it turn to skin and bones.

Why allocate the caffeine tax to junior colleges instead of something else, like paying back the national debt, or unemployment benefits? The reason why the money should go to junior colleges is because the USA will see direct short term and long term results by doing so. The short term affects would be, increased employment at the junior colleges, and most-likely decreased crime in areas with idle people. The long term affects would be a more specialized and qualified work-force.

Now I know I may be setting overidon.com up to get some hate-mail from angry readers who don’t want to pay more for their coffee. So to facilitate this, HERE’s a LINK TO OUR CONTACT PAGE.

The interesting thing about this is that I’m not sure exactly how to market the tax. Would this be a sin tax? I don’t think caffeine is really a sin so I don’t think that would be the best was to get the public to gulp down a 10% hike in the price of their java. The best way I can think of presenting the tax would be to say that caffeine is a proven drug that can cause sleep and/or anxiety disorders and therefore a portion of  the money generated from such drug should be redistributed into an important part of our society, education.

I seriously doubt Starbucks or any other coffee company would mind the tax. Since the money would be going to junior colleges, they could put on the cups next to the “YOU” mission statement thing, that by buying Starbucks, “YOU…would be educating the future of America!” Case closed. Drink coffee and teach America. It’s got a ring to it huh?

-Tyler

If you click on this link, you will be taken to the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL). This website is an amazing free resource where you can read Sumerian translations and transliterations. If you are a fan of Sumerians I really recommend that [...]]]>

Read Literally Tons of Sumerian Literature for free on the ETCSL

If you click on this link, you will be taken to the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL). This website is an amazing free resource where you can read Sumerian translations and transliterations. If you are a fan of Sumerians I really recommend that you visit this site. In case you want to check out their home page where you can search literature by number then click on this link. I was reading some of their proverbs last night and had a blast. Here’s an example of one of their awesome proverbs: “Whatever it is that hurts you, don’t talk to anyone about it.” How rad is that? That’s seriously good advice. Don’t talk about what hurts you. People need to remember that. Too often people give away their weaknesses like an open book and they leave themselves open to manipulation and exploitation. I love the Sumerians and think they are awesome. Big thanks to Oxford for making that website. It is seriously excellent resource. There are enough texts in there to take years to read them all and absorb their wisdom.

Have you ever seen a bear do Kung-Fu with a bamboo stick? Well, before I saw this video I haven’t seen any show of dexterity and manual skill of this magnitude by a bear. This bear is from Japan. Let me give a big thanks to The Morning Mash Up [...]]]>

Bear doing Kung-Fu with Bamboo Stick

Have you ever seen a bear do Kung-Fu with a bamboo stick? Well, before I saw this video I haven’t seen any show of dexterity and manual skill of this magnitude by a bear. This bear is from Japan. Let me give a big thanks to The Morning Mash Up for bringing this video to my attention. The Morning Mash Up is a website with funny little articles and it is a variety blog. This bear that is in the video is extremely talented. It looks very curious about the manual manipulation of the staff and it seems to have a great sense of balance. You can watch the bear search for the center of gravity of the staff and it uses its head and feet sometimes to do interesting movements. If you watch the video past 1 minute and 30 seconds the bear really starts to do some cool moves with the staff. I think this shows that bears are very intelligent and talented. I wonder if all bears are this curious about moving objects or if this is peculiar to this bear. It would be pretty cool to have a bear bodyguard who knew how to use a bo staff.

Everyone knows that 3D Televisions are now a reality. We also know that the 3D TV’s will require people to use 3D Glasses in order to watch the 3D Channels. What people might not realize is that watching commercials in 3D will encourage people to absorb them to a [...]]]>

President Obama and others watching 3D Commercials

Everyone knows that 3D Televisions are now a reality. We also know that the 3D TV’s will require people to use 3D Glasses in order to watch the 3D Channels. What people might not realize is that watching commercials in 3D will encourage people to absorb them to a much greater extent, for several reasons. What do I mean by absorb? Basically, when you watch commercials on a non-3D TV, you are usually sitting down, in a char or couch or maybe on a bean bag. And when the commercial comes on the screen you can look at the screen and then look away without any problem. It only takes a second or so for your eyes to adjust to the image on the screen after having looked away. Now, imagine you are wearing 3D Glasses. You put the glasses on your head, sit down in your seat, and now start watching the 3D Television Station. Wait – think for a second. What just happened? You took another step than you did when you didn’t have a 3D TV. The extra step was that you PUT THE 3D GLASSES ON. Now, this may seem like a minute step. But in actuality it is an act of work, that required an extra bit of effort on your part as a TV watcher. Keep this in the back of your mind as you read on.

After you start watching your TV show with your 3D glasses on, the show comes to a commercial break. Now remember, when you didn’t have the glasses on you could look away, or go get food or look at your phone or something. But now you have the 3D glasses on, so if you decide on getting up and getting something from you refrigerator, since the 3D glasses make everything a lot darker (almost like sunglasses) then you will probably have to either take the 3D glasses off. This is important, because by taking the 3D glasses off, you have just done another step, another piece of work. Now think about this for a moment, when you are watching TV, you are not really in the mood to do extra work, you are in a state where you want to be entertained. So it would be going against your already set momentum of action by taking the glasses off. So in actuality, you will most likely NOT TAKE THE GLASSES OFF. You will in all likelihood, sit through the commercials with the 3D glasses on. Why? Because it’s easier than taking the glasses on and off every 7-10 minutes. Therefore 3D TV will encourage people to sit through more commercials.

But what about absorption? I said that you would absorb more commercials when watching 3D TV and I meant it. Well, now that we know that 3D TV will encourage you to sit through more commercials. Think about how the commercials are different now. You will be absorbing them more for the following reasons. First of all, it takes more actual physical work for you eyes and brain to decode 3D images. This is pretty obvious. The TV images aren’t normal images that you are used to seeing in every day life. They are stereo images that have the colors split and ghosted in order to give you the 3D effect when you put on the glasses. So when you look at the 3D TV with the glasses on, either eye doesn’t see the same image. In fact, the entire 3D illusion is created, because your eyes are tricked by the 3D TV and the 3D glasses. But in order for the illusion to work, your eyes and mind have to do a little extra processing in order to give your mind the 3D image. So in a sense, you are concentrating more when you use the 3D TV and Glasses. That’s point number one, concentration. The second point is that the commercials are in 3D so they are more visually stimulating. They pop out at you and do interesting things, they seem more interesting than regular commercials because it looks like the commercial occupies actual 3-dimensional space. So the end result is that you are more stimulated by the 3D Images rather than a flat 2D image. The extra stimulation of 3D commercials along with the added concentration that is required to view the image mixed with the fact that you don’t want to do the extra work to take the glasses off means that you will absorb more information from each commercial. You will absorb more product information, you will absorb more brand name recognition, you will absorb more emotional responses to things that stimulate your emotions (like sexual imagery, or sensual food advertisements that may stimulate your salivary glands) and most of all, you will more suggestions from each advertisement. If an advertisement is sending you a suggestion to be hungry, you will be hungrier when watching it in 3D. If a commercial is sending a suggestion to be more afraid and worried about your security, you can count on the fact that the burglar in the home alarm commercial will be more frightening when he breaks into someone’s house in 3D.

So what is the real point of 3D TV? To get you to not just watch more commercials, but to absorb commercials to a greater extent. It is really that simple. If you think that 3D TV is going to be a fad that fades away in a couple of years, think again. I predict today on May 18th, 2010 that all televisions that will be sold 10 years from now will all have 3D TV capability. If you want to get a TV without 3D it will be as hard as finding a TV with an antenna port. Non 3D TV’s just won’t exist anymore. All television stations will be in High Definition and 3D. Why is this going to happen? One reason, consumption. By having TV watchers absorb more information and suggestions from their programming and commercials, the creators of programming and commercials will have more control over the mass consumption of the people. This in turn will influence the market economy, as well personal choices, in style, preferences, and consumption habits. Don’t be surprised if we start seeing, 3D computers. And Youtube in 3D.

Tonight, while I was watching the TV Show, LOST, there was a commercial about the 10 o’clock news. And do you want to know what the news story was in the advertisement? The news story presented at the commercial break was, (and I am NOT joking here, I actually saw this on channel HD 7) that movie theater pop-corn was good for your health. I thought for a second that I was watching a practical joke. I mean, how stupid does the media really think we are? Movie theater pop-corn, being good for us? Is this some kind of joke?

Ok, so excuse my pun, but it definitely seems like we are getting BUTTERED up for something right now. Now, I am not trying to upset you, or make you not want a 3D TV or anything. The fact is, there is no escaping this trend. We are going to have to experience it whether we like it or not. I just never expected to see 3D TVs in my lifetime, never-mind before I hit 30. The reason why I am telling you this is because I want you to be able to see it coming and laugh about it. If you have a friend that starts to make fun of you or belittle you because you don’t have the latest gadget, gizmo, or technology, now you know that there is more than meets the eye on the latest toys. And trust me, they are toys. We are being induced into an extended child-like state of attempting to satiate our desires on physical, and emotional levels. We are being programmed to want to be stimulated, instead of being encouraged to create for ourselves. Take a moment and think about how many times you experience the idea, “I want” during the day. Do you want things, once during the day? Perhaps 2-5 times per day? Or do you find yourself desiring things and emotions on a constant basis throughout your daily life. This state of mind of constant desire is not the “natural” state of mind for human beings, it is a conditioned response to a world that rewards desires at every turn. And 3D television encouraging us to absorb 3D commercials is just the beginning.

-Tyler

The Crow that Stayed for Dinner(s). In spring 2009, Corona del Mar struggled through its fourth consecutive year of sparse winter rain. With the local hills July brown; wildlife migrated into the lushly watered green neighborhoods, especially crows. With plenty of food and water, the crows multiplied and were abundant. [...]]]>

Can a crow be a friend?

The Crow that Stayed for Dinner(s). In spring 2009, Corona del Mar struggled through its fourth consecutive year of sparse winter rain. With the local hills July brown; wildlife migrated into the lushly watered green neighborhoods, especially crows. With plenty of food and water, the crows multiplied and were abundant. When the parent crows deem that the time is right, they shove their chicks from the nest; watch them flutter to the ground, then raucously call to them to get them to fly into the trees. One of our neighbors (whom we’ll call Jim to avoid a Fish and Game Department problem) watched this act unfold in his front yard. The first chick flew awkwardly, but safely to the ground. For the second, its first flight was a struggle. The chick could not fully extend its right wing, tumbling in the air and crashing onto the lawn. After a bit, the chick was able to rise to its feet, but was dazed.

The parents called to the first chick, encouraging it to spread its wings. Within moments, it flew into the shrubbery and then, in a series of flights, worked its way into a nearby tree. Once their first chick was safe, the parents flew down to the second chick. Instead of encouraging the chick to fly, they immediately began pecking at the unfortunate creature. Another pair of adult crows soon flew down and joined in the pecking. Jim knew that this was normal crow behavior, but he simply could not watch it take place. He rushed on the patch of grass, showed away the adult crows and picked it the chick. The calls of the other crows then became loud and rapid. Then two of them began swooping, forcing Jim to take the chick into his house.

Jim first gave the chick some water. After drinking a bit, the bird saw a bowl of popcorn on the counter, hopped over and grabbed a couple of pieces. Satiated and tired, the chick found a rag on the counter, hopped over, sat down and then went to sleep. That was all it took. Jim decided to care for the chick until it was strong enough to fly away and live with other crows. But it didn’t happen that way. If you walk by Jim’s house, most days you’ll see the crow sitting on its perch, no restraining device of any type. There’s a bowl of water and a small bowl of food, which Becky (yes, Jim named the crow) seems to enjoy.

When Jim joins Becky on the patio, Becky extends her wings, takes a few beats and alights on his shoulder. Becky then works her way down his arm and asks to be stroked, which Jim does most gently, on her head, wings and chest. Contented, Becky then flutters and putters around the yard, pecking at items of interest, occasionally bring an item to Jim to examine. Invariably another crow or two hovers in a nearby tree, watching Becky, apparently puzzled that a crow would choose to live with a human. Becky’s contact with other crows comes during Jim’s morning run. They start off at first light. Jim runs along the street, while Becky, unfettered, flies from tree to tree. That’s when the other crows in the neighborhood start chasing her, pecking at he tail feathers. When Jim comes to a halt, Becky immediately returns to his shoulder, needing and/or wanting his protection.

Jim and Becky’s partnership makes me wonder about the breadth of animal intelligence, the desire for companionship and the need for purpose. Becky was being rejected and faced death. This is a common trait among certain species, to kill young that would not survive in their natural environment; an act keeps predators from discovering healthy siblings. These deaths assure survival of the fittest.

Becky clearly is aware of the problems she faces among her own kind. Despite her innate fear of humans, she bonded with Jim. He became a surrogate parent and by providing her with shelter and food, she never developed survival skills. Jim’s compassion resulted in the development of a complex and demanding relationship. Becky cannot survive without his constant help and attention. Should Jim fail to provide for her, Becky would die, possibly by acts of her peers or from an inability to obtain food in the wild. If Jim is away from the house for an extended time, Becky becomes nervous or agitated, sometimes even plucking at her feathers.

Jim must awaken with Becky, take his run and be at home in the evening. Becky does not accept substitutes for Jim, even his adult children who would like to care for her. Jim does not know whether Becky can travel, so he has not taken a vacation since their first encounter. What does Jim, a single man, gain from this relationship with an animal? One factor is uniqueness — only a patient and caring man would be willing to accept the obligations of this remarkable relationship. Another is the satisfaction — coming from saving this creature’s life. Parenting of a wild animal that chooses to live with you for now, but is free to go at any time…There are many reasons why the relationship between Becky and Jim works. For me, it’s a pleasure to see this remarkable pair on their patio and to talk to Jim.

For them, I hope that they share many more enjoyable dinners.

Thanks to Ken for writing this article!

Human Beings and the Technology Singularity. Technology has come a long way. Some people think that in the future there will be a technological singularity. At this time human beings will basically merge with technology. It is imagined that there will be nano-technology this nanotechnology will make it so advances [...]]]>

Technology has come a long way

Human Beings and the Technology Singularity. Technology has come a long way. Some people think that in the future there will be a technological singularity. At this time human beings will basically merge with technology. It is imagined that there will be nano-technology this nanotechnology will make it so advances in medicine and computer will be possible. Some people say that the year of this technology singularity is 2029. That’s about 19 years away from today. I’ll be 49 years old. But people make predictions all the time. Weren’t we supposed to have high power laser beams and flying cars by now? What about space travel? It’s 2010, and we’re still trying to get humans on Mars. What makes 2029 special? Well, Raymond Kurzweil says that computer technology is different from advances in fields like physics.  Kurzweil says that there will be exponential growth in the field of computers, especially in processing power. I guess there is something different from an advance in physics as opposed to an advance in computers. What is interesting is that by the year 2029 if things keep progressing toward the Technological Singularity, there may be a convergence with what people are talking about with the Zeitgeist and Venus Project movements. Ever want to store your mind in a computer when you go to bed? Stick around till 2029. Ever want to move objects with your mind? Watch the video below and see how monkeys do it. Check out the video below for more information about the Technological Singularity and about a new version of humanity.