Thursday, November 07, 2013

Capitalizing on the disorganized

So I was checking the mail last week, and I get my usual health magazine from the insurance company. The front cover is plastered with the following quote "Easy recipes to keep your kids healthy on a busy schedule!"

It initially sounds like a good thing. Fast, easy, achieves a goal. 

However, look at a few other detrimental messages it promotes. It promotes the "I want it fast, and I want it NOW!" mentality so common here in America.

It promotes a laziness by doing the easy method vs taking quality time to make something good and worthwhile.

Being too busy for your kids is a sign of bad time management. Additionally, why would any parent ever think of such an idea as being too busy for your kid?

This is just 1 example of what I have been observing throughout many articles of a recovering America.

I am also in a front row seat for this because I live in Michigan an hour away from bankrupt Detroit!

So the country grows ever more debts, and even continually lends itself more money to maintain macro-economic flow.  A lot of youtubers I see who complain about the constant spending do not seem to realize the fact that they can still rant and youtube because there is money flowing to keep their service running and food on their table at a reasonable price.

Anyways, I have let this rant go on for too long. Next time there will be something good to look forward to.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Future articles I am working on.

August has the following lined up for me:  I am finalizing a 6-month project, preparing a major move for my sister, moving out myself to a new place, AND cleaning up the family estate.   All in the span of 1 month.


I do have articles stored here that are waiting to be finished.  Here is a list of articles inbound, but they will be coming out slowly

Google Science Fair and how sad it will be to see very little or no impact from these people down the road.

Custom manufacturing via CNC and 3-D printing.What you REALLY should do to change the World Economic System with these technologies.

The headaches of providing feedback to budding writers

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Sports, drugs, and the media

So, it's the first day of the Tour De France, and the kicker focus has been anti-doping.

I understand that the problem exists as a form of cheating. It is kind of a method that we associate with hacking and cheating in the video game community. However, just like hacking, doping can be "erased" to hide the act, and the evidence of the crime can be lost forever.


So based on that concept, I will present my opinion on Lance Armstrong's alleged doping.

My first point I would like to make is that they are re-analyzing samples from several years ago.  Unless, the samples are cryogenically frozen at absolute zero, the samples themselves can not last more than a year (even in -80C).  We don't even keep bug samples that long.  So how can anyone validate a test that is using a sample from that long ago? 

So let's take another avenue. He has drugs now. Is it legitimate? I believe it is if he is participating in a non-competitive context. Marathon rides for Cancer, and the like. It's not beneficial to him, but it helps a cause, and people are here for fun, more than a prize.  Obviously in a competitive context now, it would disqualify him.  However, the consequence of his doping should not be more severe than Contador doing the same thing who only lost 1 title, and not everything.

There is another point to this doping as well. He had cancer, and survived it. I believe one of his treatments involves chemo therapy. This includes a multitude of drugs that does include immuno suppression. This itself indicates steroidal treatment which leads to a positive dope test. Obviously though the intent of it is not to improve your muscles, but to control your immune system.  Sadly the media conveniently leaves these important points of information out. 

So I ask why Lance would admit it, and why he would give everything away on such a bad case?

Well, let's entertain a few speculations starting with the benefit of "the doubt. "

He is admitting it to avoid the media, court, and systematic hassles of denying it.  If we remember when this fiasco opened up, there was a huge debate about the validity of the results.  He even at first said he didn't do any drugs, and the debate and controversy just kept going.  Then on some whim of a day, he just went up and said "I did it. "  Then after that, the controversy and the reporting just stopped and died away with his titles.

I speculate that his main reason to admission is to me it looks like he said it just to shut people up to stop bugging him and to continue on with his life through his Charity instead.

I think this is the case because his more significant contribution to society is the Live Strong Charity that generates money for Cancer (and possibly him), and that has been a bigger part of his career lately, than the Tour De France.  So a route to not hinder the Charity's reputation is to end the controversy before it spills over.  He's still a man to conquer Cancer, and he competed at an international level to boot, drugs or not, fighting cancer and competing is still a tall order to fill.

Now let's go with the other,

He did do drugs, and is admitting to a mistake that he made.  So why is there any controversy?  Well if people are careful to read, they'll know that the controversy is in the Tour De France's bad reputation for improper inspection.  What the focus should have been on is that the race itself does not take doping seriously, and therefore just like bad GMs that don't ban hackers, dopers will become rampant in the competition.  Lance just happens to be THE BEST of the dopers to make it there.  However, in this case, he is simply following "the rules" by evening the playing field with the other dopers.  So he's more following the status quo, rather than being anything special.  Yet the media does not focus properly on where the systematic problems are.  To continue, Contador loses his title for 2010 because of a refresher on those old samples.  Gee, so how reliable are their sampling and testing techniques? Are we talking huge margins of error here?  It sure sounds like it considering they missed several checks on Lance, and obviously a few on Contador.

In this case, the problem of doping in cycling will continue, and the problem itself will not be solved, if anything it generates more media attention when the system fails.

Probably the most important point to this though is that it appears that humanity these days can not have the image of a true and pure hero or person anymore these days.  We must find some fault, some scandal, some glaring mistake that makes them a scumbag.

Why do we need to do this?  Does it actually help society?  In true honesty, I think it does the opposite, it puts society down, it destroys their hope, it destroys their positive thinking of being better than they are.  It destroys their dreams of being able to do something for humanity.

That's really what some of these people are.  They're better than they once were.  Lance is alive, from Cancer like many other patients, but he's also a major contributor to society in its success and research.  Before that he's just some arrogant athlete wanting to go faster than the guy next to him.  We wouldn't think 2 seconds of him if he was just another athlete to win the Tour De France.  Like the 75 some odd others before him, only the community of cycling would see him in high regard.  However, he did more than that, well that made him more than just an athlete.  He's a symbol of survival to many, and of hope to many (including myself).  This scandal and rebuke of his titles itself doesn't affect me, nor my brother, but it will affect others for sure, and it will affect the future in a bad way.

I will point out another example that is more famous, and more familiar to people:

Bill Clinton:
He had a mistress, and he lied on camera about it.  Honestly people, if your husband or wife had a mistress/affair, would you admit to it on national TV while you're still married?!  If you say yes, then I give you props for being true and honest, but I know most people are likely to think about the repurcussions of full admittance vs the chance of getting away with a "white lie."

This mistress though didn't affect his career as the President of the United States.  He was a good president too, pulling the country out of a recession, and into a beautiful market boom (that crashed later).  He instituted good relations with other countries, and we started to see the USA as something besides a dumbass (which got reversed later).  Literally during his time, the focus was what he was doing, where he was going, and what contributions he was making around the world, and to his people.  Up until he had an affair, then it all went to shit about not what his political tribulations are, but what he is doing in bed.

It's really completely unrelated, and the effect of what he does at home isn't seeping into what he is doing at work.  I think most people in society are capable of separating their home life, from their work life.  In the case of the President of the United States, I  would say he did that pretty well, but it just made a fiasco when his home life wasn't the Classic 50s American Dream commercial.

So I say to the people of this world, keep your role models, look up to them, despite their flaws and their weaknesses, look at what makes them brilliant and special.  Take that with you, and move onward towards your dreams and goals.

Building in the face of adversity.

I run far away
I distract myself with others.

Yet you still come back to me.
Yet you still remind me.

Who are you?
What are you?

You have different names.
A passion.
A calling.


You are a true purpose to a being.  Compiled from the many factors of family upbringing, intellectual preferences, and the experiences of both your successes and failures of the related and unrelated.

So now that my bad antics at poetry are done, let's get back to what this post is actually for.

As many know, I am mechanically inclined, and I've always had tons of ideas and dreams to build the many wonders of our imagination.  However, I have not built anything.  For the reason that the many wonders of our imagination are tainted by the fears of society, and the fears of our "ignorance."

Let's take a very common and now recurring archetype.

The Artificial Intelligence:  In the forms of several different types of media, we look and portray this idea as something to fear.  Why is it something we fear?  We are creating something capable of adapting to its environment in a way similar to ourselves.  In that sense, it is being equally human as human as we are.  If we create something of self-awareness, it is creating something that questions his origins.  However, he does not need to question his origins because we are his origins.  So the next logical thought is does the self-awareness recognize us as God, or as a lesser being?  From the stand point of us and God, we are recognizing the higher being as God, not as a lesser being.

In the context of an AI, we believe that they will recognize us as a lesser being because of their abilities to have systems stronger than bone, and faster than a neuron.  What about creativity though?  Creativity is what makes humanity unstable able to even think and create these beings.  Tell an AI to be creative, they will probably tell you they can not (Data from Star Trek: TNG comes to mind).  Thus, that is something we have that an AI could never have.  Why would an AI discard this?  Logically it does not make sense to destroy what is irreplaceable.  It makes sense to back it up and preserve it.  Additionally, it is a source for further permutations of potential and development from these seemingly intangible and random thoughts.  Additionally, AI are like plants, they reproduce asexually (atleast to start), so any flaws or errors that we left in them, could potentially wipe them out.  In the interest of preserving both species, it is better to be symbiotic.

But who wants a story of peace, harmony, and hope in humanity these days?  I remember back in high school, a lot of people really hated the movie "October sky.  "  I still don't understand why because the movie itself depicts something many movies, fantasies, and television series miss these days.  That is no matter how smart (or dumb in this case), how much of a genius you are, you still got to work hard for the dreams and goals you have.  Success will never fall in your lap, it must be built through many iterations of improvement to that greatness.  "A Beautiful Mind" is another worthy of the same spectacle.

So here I am, at the place of the beginning:  I've contemplated 11 years on this invention:  The Human Golem:  A man capable of withstanding the great fires of  Venus, the coldest winters of Pluto.  Moving great mountains, and stopping every comet in our way.

I move forward with this project to give humanity a choice.  Will you use it to destroy yourselves as you fear, or will you use it to bring humanity to new and greater places?

If we don't build it, How will we will know where humanity goes.

I can only build and watch humanity's path.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Canada's stupid ignorance about American Gun Laws.

So I'm currently infuriated by several of my Canadian friends about their posts on American Gun laws that they do not understand.

The infuriating part is their own personal ignorance about how closely Canadian and American gun laws match!

#1)  All guns must be registered SOMEWHERE!  If you want to buy a gun in both countries, it has to be recorded and reported.  Whether the shop dealer does his paper work right or not is a matter of discretion on the owner, and enforcement by the government.

#2) Automatic weapons ARE NOT legally available in America.  Not in most states that I know of, and only to Law Enforcement and Military personnel ONLY.  Guess what Canada, it's exactly the same as you!  As an example, Discovery's Sons of Guns builds automatic weapons ALL the time, but their customer is just about always law enforcement, security detail, or Military (Veteran and active).  Everybody else that gets a weapon from them is Semi-ONLY.  The Sandyhook weapon.  An AR-15 Colt Bushmaster is a SEMI-ONLY Rifle.  You can buy the same thing, with the a lower power .22 calibre, IN CANADA for $1200 and a gigantic 20rd mag for it by default!

#3) Bad storage of weapons:  Sandyhook was SPECIFICALLY caused by 2 things:  Failing to diagnose and treat the perpetrator of is illness.  Failing to PROPERLY STORE YOUR FIREARMS.  This type of failure IS NOT SPECIFIC to the USA.  It is a careless mistake made by a lazy individual, who was not vigilant in their safe keeping.  This can, and does happen in Canada too!  The Driftwood shooting was caused by a teenager who joined a gang, and took his dad's gun because the Dad didn't store it safely away.  Why is CANADA letting these lazy individuals get licences to guns?!

My personal experience with storage:
I "only" have a library of Airsoft Guns, and 3 Airguns.  Compared to my farmer friends, it's harmless!  However, if I think about the ignorant use of them by any random person that doesn't know what they're doing, I lock them up, I keep their magazines out. I put ammunition so far away, it'll take you 30 minutes to find a round and pop it into a gun.  I even spend the money to buy Firearms Grade Lockers to store them in.  I buy Trigger Locks for Airguns because I don't want ANYONE I don't trust to touch them. The only guns that are out, are deactivated guns that are broken.  They don't shoot, they are in pieces .  It is not required by law for me to store them this way, and most airsofters DON'T store them like that.  However, I do so because I want to be safe.

BTW, if you don't store your firearms properly in Canada, it's a criminal offense, and you will get fined and charged for it.

#4) Stolen and Smuggled Guns:  This is a problem with BOTH Countries.  Organized Crime is not specific to America, it is a problem in many nations, and in many forms.  What's so special about America?  It's on the news, vs NOT on the news.  So Canada not telling its citizens about a gun smuggling problem makes it ok, and America reporting to its citizens to be vigilant about it isnt ok?  If you personally like your head in the sand, then go ahead.  I like to watch out and not be near that stray bullet heading for me thank you very much.

So basically the frustration for me comes from ignorance.  Go read up on the specifics, and understand specifics that you don't know.  What gun did they use, and compare it to what the news compared it to.  See the differences and similarities.  Go understand the actual laws, and see whether it was systematic error, or personal error.  Go understand the cultural significance of things like the 2nd Amendment, and the culture of country the disaster is happening in.  You don't have to absorb the culture, but be able to  understand things like why American Cars are Big, Luxurious and Baroque, vs Economical, Functional and "plain."  THEN decide whether your original impression (not even opinion, because that is worth seeing and debating about) of the small newspaper article shooting is legitimate for posting on Facebook.

Saturday, April 06, 2013

The beauty of Love and Friendship.

So it's the end of my short week long vacation in Hong Kong.  It is short considering I spent 2 days travelling, so it could be thought of more as a 5-day vacation with 2 journeys to go with it.

I would first like to congratulate Cherry Kwan for her successful and amazing marriage.  May you have many anniversaries and happy years together!

Secondly, I would like to thank her again for the reason that this trip has given me a new experience in life.  For once in my lifetime, or long long ago, in a faraway place, I have felt the love and care of my family.

Thirdly, I would like to thank my friends I've come to see on this trip.  Yes, there was a ton of catching up to do, but even after all of that, the experiences of Hong Kong were great, and it's challenged my own personal way of life.  Perhaps the future will be brighter, and I won't be alone climbing that mountain we call life.

Dangers of dreaming

So recently I went to see Lindsey Stirling at a concert and one of the key messages of her concert is to not let life compose you, but make yourself that composer. It'll be hard, and it will be painful, but the reward will be life changing and unforgettable.

I absolutely love the message, which is why I'm a huge fan of hers. However, the band before her for the cover of the concert gave a grave message of being morally responsible. Especially to engineers and scientists.

At first, I was very offended at having my 2 greatest professions being singled out and openly blamed for the world going astray.

However, I understand their viewpoint, and I can only be apologetic for the bad consequences that followed some of our major developments.

In contrast to the bad, there is good. Many of America's reactors are actually converted nuclear weapons, and the internet has gone well beyond its initial military application and become a key component in peoples' ability to connect with others.

So why am I so sad or vividly affected by the messages of these 2 artists?

Because my dream could aid a very small portion of society, but it can also change the way we look at how scary and powerful we have come.

Let's get straight to the point between science, engineering and literature.

The concept in question I like to know it as the race to the Great Golem.

The Golem in the most modern sense would be the following science fiction characters and concepts:

Mobile Suit Gundam
Ironman
Mech Warrior

The idea being an armored shell that does not require a man's strength to wield, but possess the strength of Hercules, and the speed of Pegasus.

So far in this world we've had prototype concepts, fan cosplays, and even ludicrous statues with minor motion (Controls engineering term for very simple single axis rotation).

However, my dream is not just these "piddly" prototype toys that I arrogantly scoff at.  But something that can be mass produced, something that can be available for everyone.  So when my friends show me the great successes of professors, PhDs, Masters build 1 giant robot, build 1 human support system.  I laugh because when they built it, they didn't think about how to maunfacture it, how to simplify it's super complicated systems into something simple and repeatable.  They just built it to show off how much knowledge these few people have.  Well, I'm sorry to tell you elite few, but everyone has access to the same amount of knowledge, and can put it all together over 10 years of our personal spare time.

I'm not here to be that type of innovator.  I am here to be the next Henry Ford.  The one to mass produce something that people demand in the Great Golem.

It's a great and ambitious vision, but I have held myself back because of Moral Responsibility about the consequences of a mass produced Self-propelled suit of armor.

I would generaly state the Pros first, but let's be honest, most people will see the Cons way before the Pros.

Cons:
Intensify War by requiring stronger weapons to penetrate these new Armored Infantry troops.

The sheer volume of potential damage 1 of these suits can do to the general public is horrific.  Look at the IronMan universe.  Tony Stark had 1 suit, and he breaks himself out of a Taliban Mountain.  The series continues as the technology proliferates, the world gets crazier and harder to keep in order.  People get hurt badly or even die.

These Cons are so big, that it would be easier for governments to deal with "drones" than to invest in a system making "super-human" possible.

Pros:
Parapelgics, and other Physical disabilities can be aided, by external control, or internal cybernetics.  I'm personally not one for cybernetics like the Borg, but I know others who are, and I do support their endeavours.

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) can be improved.  Imagine Fukushima occuring again, but instead of having suits that will only take so little radiation, why not build a powered-suit that is impervious to radiation?

Build Construction suits that allow personnel the impossibility of getting crushed under mines, or falling buildings.  Truly Hazard proof equipment suits for any need.

Unfortunately, these Pros, don't exactly outweigh the cons, and they come with their own individual ethical and cost effectiveness questions.

And so I ask you the society, where would you like me to go with my dream?

Sunday, March 03, 2013

6 month review

So 6 months go by, and I'm still working at the same place I use to.  However, they've moved me to the great United States of America to work on short term contracts.

It's great to learn new things about industry, and to travel.  However, I still don't have time to work on my new toy which is my CNC machine sitting in my garage in Canada and doing nothing.  I bought the huge thing, but the house is such a mess that I have no where to install it...  Epic sadness.

Today's post though is more a reflection and response to other bloggers that have been going through difficult times.  Specifically daughters of Chinese families who are at the stage where they are leaving their parents for a new life.   I would usually make a comment on them, but I felt it inappropriate to do such a thing when my condolence was literally "suck it up, think hard, and make a decision between your family and the one you love.  "

Of which I know it is impossible for them to even try and make such a decision because they are, unlike me, close to their family.

Side note:  These bloggers have never actually failed to the point where they can't get up or they have to start over from many years back.  Admittedly I think it is a good thing to fail once in your lifetime pursuing a dead end, so that you can properly find your true direction and self.

So for those leaving your parents, or feeling shackled by them, here's a cheesy saying of advice.

Do not think about the consequences, or their reactions, but feel what is in your heart, and decide what is best from there.  Life is not short these days anymore.  You have time to make mistakes and truly find yourself through them. 



Here would be the back story as to why I would think of such a thing, rather than be able to relate and offer a nicer condolence.

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Page Break Test