When Fiction Becomes Reality

Humans have sought better technology to improve life since the earliest of humans thought about the wheel. As technology has improved with time, so has the creativity of individuals such as George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars franchise. In science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Wars human-kind and alien-kind have super advanced technology, this super advanced technology is a staple-mark of science fiction. This advanced technology includes but it's not limited to: starships, light-sabers, plasma blasters, tele-transporters, hoverboards, and in today's topic - force fields. The purpose of a science fiction force field is to deflect and protect the caster of such force field from incoming damage of flying objects, projectiles, or shockwaves. Well strap your seatbelts geeks because force field-like technology is on its way! Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company and manufacturers of commercial jetliners and defense, space, and security systems, has been granted the patent to develop a "method and system for shock wave attenuation via electromagnetic arc", so pretty much an electromagnetic arc which would reduce the force or impact of shockwaves better known as a force-field. Even if this is a giant step towards better protective and science fiction-like technology, the system won't be exactly the same as what we see in movies as it will only decrease shock waves and it won't stop projectiles such as bullets or shrapnel from explosives. This technology under development might be of some help to military, however.

Innovation and new technology always excites me, science is always taking steps forward for mankind and this example of new technology is making the impossible possible. This attenuator of shockwaves will definitely save lives of soldiers in combat that are close to the humvees which this system will be attached to. Even if this technology promises things that are not as impressive as its science fiction counterpart, this is some wicked-cool system that continues the long chain of human development in technology!

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Laser Scanners Making History, And Saving It!

Human history is filled with culture and ancient ways of living, and ever since the first humanoid beings on earth learned how to leave marks to represent something, history has been happening. Humans found good ways to leave their marks in the ever-flowing and mysterious flux of time, from the simplest markings on walls made from concoctions of animal blood and plants to the most complex and thorough language and writing systems, but neither have had the most notoriety as statues and sculptures. From the smallest talisman of a representation of a god according to a culture to the most grandiose monuments such as the Egyptian Pyramids, these sculptures of time have travelled through the ages and have taught each coming generation about their past, their origins, their culture and way of life, their beginnings. They are also great attractions that attract tourists daily! But what happens when nature turns against us? When earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes engulf places of the world in nature's magnificent ire, what happens then to those beacons of history? Many are destroyed, much to our shame. However, Ben Kacyra believes he has found the answer to this complication, and it may sound like it came out of a science-fiction comic book. He "was instrumental" in creating the first portable laser scanner which allows for big structures to be scanned in a three-dimensional plane and be viewed in a computer. Ben explains that since the statues of Buddha were attacked and destroyed by the Taliban and an earthquake wiped out an entire mud city in Bam, Iran he wanted to do something to preserve these marks in time, therefore he created the company CyArk which specializes in these procedures of scanning large monuments for electronic preservation and easy access for viewing of the masses via the internet. He plans on scanning and electronically preserving 500 monuments in 5 years, he has already completed the scannings of Ancient Thebes, Chichen Itza, Fort Laramie, Mesa Verde, Mount Rushmore, Pompeii, Rapa Nui, Sydney Opera House, Tikal, and his native Mosul. 

I think it's fantastic that this company is scanning and storing these monuments by thoroughly scanning them. This way, millennia of history can be stored and viewed by the masses and studied. Children can access, by the click of a button, all that history and be enriched from all that data, and in case something happens to those monuments at least there is a visual representation of what magnificence it held before its demise. Maybe in the future, when the technology is ripe, there may be ways of restoring those lost monuments from those electronically scanned blueprints! 

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From The Eyes of A Policeman

More recently than before, law-enforcement has gotten quite of a bad reputation. With the current shootings of innocent African American men, hatred has built up in the citizens' minds. While many judge and criticize the actions of these policemen, many don't understand the pressure and the responsibility that these men have on their backs every day. When the events in Ferguson, Missouri played out, the police force was appalled by the extremely negative response and the lack of empathy or understanding by the citizens throughout the United States. It is clear that media portrays policemen as brutal and violent. Reporters are one of the gateways into the mass media and now thanks to a new campaign from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund that provides virtual simulations of different situations that a policeman in training has to take, they are able to experience these dramatic and nerve-wrenching situations face to face in hope that this will bring more awareness to the stress that these men have to go through. With these simulations the goal is to make people understand that policemen are human too, and the decisions they make are based on unpredictable variables that they need make in order to do the best for the people around them, based on their judgment.

I think this campaign and these simulations are really good. They finally allow for people to see these kinds of situations as life or death choices and stop the judging and harassment of policemen. Of course there are good cops and bad cops, some who take their duty seriously and others who abuse their power. I don't think it’s fair for the whole police force to be hated for the actions of the few. Seeing problems from other people’s perspectives might solve the problem altogether.

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