Inactive

This site is inactive until I get some of my other things done.

Best of College Humor (TOP 5)

College Humor has made some very funny clips over the years. This is a list of my favorites. Warning not all jokes are appropriate for children.

1. Batman vs The Penguin (with Patton Oswalt)

2. We Didn't Start the Flame War

3. Jetsons Theme Song Extended 

4. Pokemon: Gotta Buy 'Em All

5. Koopa's Hell

Boston Marathon Terror- Modern Boston Massacre

Today there were bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon. Currently they do not know much about this, but what I do know is that I had multiple friends that were running this race and I cannot get a hold of any of them.

This post is going to talk about the desensitization of terror. I am not looking for responses but more just questioning what I think. 

I am not really worried about my friends running the race, because there is nothing I can do. I am just angry that whoever did this was not aiming for a specific target. I mean innocent runners? Why not aim for someone that would make more of a "splash". Now I am not saying that it is not horrible, because it is but these things are becoming common. The think I don't understand is the fact that the Boston Marathon is not just an event that Americans partake in. I mean there are 69 countries that run in this race, so it was not directly related to targeting America. This makes me think they were just trying to terrorize people or make a statement. 

I believe that whoever did this was most likely a group of people. There were multiple bombs, which would require quite a bit of material and planning. The bombs were spread out which either means multiple trips by one person to plant the bombs or a group who planted them.

I wish the people who did these events would kill themselves in some gruesome way in front of people, instead of taking out many other people to make their statement  I do feel it is a statement because, as of the information I have now, the bombs were not contained in metal or nails, so shrapnel was minimum which confirms my idea that they wanted to show what they could do, but not what they were doing. I am not sure if this bit of knowledge should be more concerning, than the initial bombing.

Lots of people say they do not understand why some one would do this. I say we can understand, but when we understand can we really be the same? I can step in the mind of these people but what I see may never allow me to be the same. Is it worth the risk of thinking like them, if I could become them? I will save these ideas for my sleep, where control becomes loose and exploration of such concepts is mandatory. 

I don't completely understand indirect violence, I can understand attacking certain public figures, but people that were finishing a race just seems like a low blow. I used to be a very successful runner and the last thing I would want to see is an explosion at the end of my race. Normally the end of a race is a magical time of pushing yourself harder than you believed you could. To have someone destroy that in such a way could leave people mentally scared for quite a while. 

What these bombers do not realize about the general public is that most people have almost become used to terror. It is a sad reality but we really have. I was reading news sites and most people are joking about North Korea than anything else. The other big event that I become invested in was the Norwegian terrorist shooting, for that shooting most people wanted to discuss video games instead. Sandy Hook shooting spurred gun control talk. Movie theater shooting at Batman showing was greeted with talk about the movie and gun control again. We see terror every day and we just find another thing to talk about, the terror we once knew is dying. 

It almost scares me because of what we are becoming. We have no filter for violence anymore. We expect we deserve most things and people are easily swayed to pick up whatever is popular at that moment. Now I know I may be stepping on toes here but I feel what I am going to say may make more people upset so just a warning. Look at the news, we care about gay marriage for about 2 weeks and drop it, violent video games debate goes on for 3-4 weeks and then there is no news time, kids pick up terms like swag and yolo, all these things people just bring up but they do not care about what happens. They pick up fads and drop them just as fast.

The United States as a nation is in debt and thinks that by restricting people they provide a better idea of safety. People need to wake up and realize, they have 100 years or less to live. Do I want to live those years fighting for a bill that will become active when I die. Do I want those years to be spent in constant fear? It really comes to the idea of what is life for.

What if we do become used to terror. A baker gets used to getting burned, people may eventually become used to terror. Children especially are victims, think of what they grow up knowing. 9/11, shooting at Sandy Hook, Batman shooting, always at war, and many other instances. I am afraid old terror may be replaced with something much worse.

Who can cause this terror. To induce terror must it be in the same country? We increase security, people react to the security by feeling safer, others react by thinking around security. Also attacks are not always from outside sources. What if because of what was witnessed and experienced as children increase the possibly of terrorists attacks on it's own citizens? What if because I see so much violence I become accustomed to it and the generations after mine start as mine had. If what is considered violent increases, what will the quality of life be like in the future.

What is the point of causing terror, or fighting, we are all just people sharing a planet. We all will die eventually so why don't we share our lives with each other and make our time on this Earth the most enjoyable it can be. We are one world, we should not be hurting ourselves. This is my idea of terrorism, and the rising violence. I would love to hear what you think about what I said. I apologize for being offensive at times, I got worked up on this event. Please keep that in mind while reading and living your life. 

My Thoughts on Shootmania

I am going to be honest with you, my first match of Shootmania was so bad that I almost never played again. But after 3 to 5 matches I began to understand the game and was hooked. Currently I am ranked 2nd in my state and plan to be number 1.

 Lets talk about game mechanics first. Shootmania is not your average shooter. You move using wasd like normal, and shoot with a left click, but that is where the similarities to common shooters end. The right click is what makes Shootmania stand out from the herd. Depending on the type of ground you are on determines whether right click is jump or sprint. This may not sound like a big thing, but to master this takes patience that will be taught after a few matches.
 As of the writing of this article I was only able to play a game mode where a tornado starts at the outskirts of the map and moves inward after someone captures the pole. The pole is a large structure (pole) in the middle of the map that you must stand next to for a few seconds to capture.

Points in Shootmania are what determines who wins. Capturing a pole gets you points, shooting an enemy gets you points, surviving a close call gets you points, and being the last one left alive gives you points. A typical round round lasts about 1 to 2 minutes, where a match can last about 15-30 mins. The reason for the quick rounds is the life system. In Shootmania after the pole has been captured you can only get shot twice and you are done. This leads you to think ahead and choose your fights. What is funny, is I became picky about what fights I was going to fight in because I wanted to live. I feel this game requires skill to master it.

 IGN made a decent review of the game. But I believe it deserves a bit more credit. It really is a fun and addicting game. The graphics are ok, I feel like they fit with the game.
To see their review: I would say buy on Steam sales, but not for full price. BUY ON SALE

A Life Without Ads

I thought of an interesting idea. What if for some amount of money we could never view a commercial? Would you be willing to pay for that? I think television providers should offer it for 20$ more a month you get commercial free channels. At 20$ there is still a profit to be made while being low enough to have people be willing to pay. I personally have gone to watching all my content online, but this is not for everyone. I think I would pay around 50$ a month to have adds gone online and on television.  I really do not like them while watching movies or listening to music. Many of you may of noticed I have ads on my site. The reason I have ads on here is for two reasons. One they are on through ads by Google that I can't turn off and two I am very strapped for cash at the moment and might get to eat rice and ramen for the next week again. This makes me part of the problem. People need money and they will try their best to make ends meet, for some people they have to advertise or their product will never be noticed and will never make any money. Morally should we get rid of ads? I would be ok with it, but I still feel that people need a way to be educated about the products available  Maybe if there was a site that was only ads for a particular style of product, and there were no ads that we had to watch, people would be inclined to look at them. Well anyway until then if you see an ad that interests you go ahead and check it out it might help you learn more about a product. Thanks for all your support so far, I plan on placing a large amount of content exclusively here in about 3 weeks. 

Strange Quotes

Not depressed, just thought of a good quote. "Sometimes life is like a rollercoaster, but it ends eventually."

I have heard the complaints

I will be uploading the original documents on here as well as scrbd for all of you that have been having viewing issues.

Biochemistry & Human Ecology

Trevor Craig

Energy Science 110

Biochemistry & Human Ecology, 10

9/28/11           

This lecture was about how communities and organisms use bio-chemicals. There are four main types of organic bio-chemicals; the four different types are carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. Plants, animals, and people use these 4 types of bio-chemicals to live, they polymerize these chemicals to exist. Plants and animals use their 21 amino acids to polymerize and make proteins, which are also needed for survival.

Automobiles and living organisms are very similar in nature. Cars need fossil fuels to work, which, in chemical structure is very close to lipids, which people need to live. When we think of fatty acids and lipids it is important to look at the chemical structure of these substances, because they can vary greatly, for example Butyric acid has only 4 carbon atoms and 0 double bonds, where Erucic acid has 22carbon atoms and 1 double bond, and DHA, found in fish oil, has 22 carbon atoms and 6 double bonds, obviously these vary. But back to cars and how they are close to living organisms; plants make sugars and oxygen which is then consumed by a living being and which then the being release CO2 and H2O, which the plants then take back in again to start the cycle over again, cars do a very similar thing, they take in, essentially, sugars and oxygen from plants and release CO2 and H20 as a result from running.

Breaking covalent bonds requires energy input and to form covalent bonds it releases energy. These bonds affect the energy change in a chemical equation, which in turn affects the combustion of the material and heating values. The heat of combustion from plants is typically lower than those of liquid fuels, the higher values of heat of combustion of plants is waxes and lipids, waxes at 45 MJ kg^-1, and lipids at 38-40 MJ kg^-1. Liquid fuels have a higher heat of combustion number typically, for example gasoline has a combustion heat of 44 MJ kg^-1 and diesel has a combustion heat of 43 MJ kg^-1, that is one reason why we use gasoline in our cars instead of things like coal that have a combustion heat of 17-30 MJ kg^-1 depending on the quality of the coal.

Humans cannot consume lignocellulose which is the majority of biomass on the earth, but some animals can like cattle, and then we can eat them. Cattle can eat things like bluegrass which is 65% structural carbohydrates, which humans are unable to digest, but cattle can for us. The energy input we put in to get our food must be lower that the energy we receive from eating the material. The highest gain from hunting is whale hunting, which returns 2000 fold for energy input vs output, a whale has 22 MJ/kg which is a lot of fat. Life can be simpler to look at when you look at it from the perspective of energy coming in and energy coming out.

Polymerize- The bonding of two or more monomers to form a polymer

Metabolism- the sum of the physical and chemical processes in an organism by which its material substance is produced, maintained, and destroyed, and by which energy is made available.

ENSC110 Biochemistry & Human Ecology 10

Refining, Materials, Engines

Trevor Craig

Energy Science 110

Refining, Materials, Engines 14

10/27/11         

This lecture was about petroleum and its uses; the lecture was also about both the price cost wise and energy wise for making different materials, and about engines.

There are several different methods for getting the materials we want out of crude oil, for example for a 42 gallon tank of crude oil in the United States the products we get in the end are 18.56 gallons of gasoline, 10.31 gallons of diesel, 4.71 gallons of jet fuel, 1.72 gallons of liquefied petroleum gasses, 1.68 gallons of heavy fuel oil, 7.01 gallons of other products, and 1.38 of other distillates. To get all these different types of fuel there are multiple different processes that people use to refine the oil to get what they want, the 5 basic ones are separation, cracking, reshaping, combining, and treating, in each instance they use a slightly different process to accomplish their goals.

One way oil refiners get what they want from crude oil is by heating the oil to a certain temperature and collecting the gas that boils off of it, and because each fuel has a different boiling point they can all be gathered separately eventually by heating the oil to different degrees, for example gasoline’s boiling point is between 30-200C where fuel oil is up to 375C. Out of all the things that we get from separating the oil we use gasoline primarily taking up 46% of the consumption and diesel taking up 18%.

We use these energy obtained from oil and other things to produce a variety of materials, all which take energy to create. The energy cost of timber is quite low at 1-3 Mj/kg where things like titanium is 900-1000 Mj/kg and things like silicon are 1400-4100 Mj/kg, which is a lot of energy needed. We can save a lot of energy by choosing materials that do not require so much energy to make, for example choosing a steel watch over an aluminum one. We use so many materials in the United States just to live every day; in the US alone every person uses 11.3 metric tons of non-fuel items a year.

The modern day engine has been a work in progress, it originated being extremely inefficient and has slowly became more efficient. The first steam engine was made in 1712 and was less than 1% efficient, today engines are still inefficient but are around 50% efficiency now. We as a people are a work in progress that will continue to improve to react with our changing environment and learn from our mistakes to make the next improvements both in life and in engines.

Refine- to make or become free from impurities, sediment, or other foreign matter; purify.

Distillation- The evaporation and subsequent collection of a liquid by condensation as a means of purification.

ENSC110 Refining, Materials, Engines 14

Planetary Energies

Trevor Craig

Energy Science 110

Planetary Energies, 8

9/21/11           

This lecture was about where energy comes from and how it affects our world. Almost all forms of energy, in one way or another, can be tracked back to the sun. The sun affects our weather, our climate, and how we live. The sun releases 3.89x10^26 J of radiation which is a lot of energy that is being released, much of this radiation comes down to earth. The sun is on a cycle of radiation levels emitting toward our atmosphere, but typically we can say that 1366 W m-2 of radiation is at the edge of the atmosphere, but this number can vary depending on what time of the cycle it is, from 1365.5 W m-2 to about 136.5 W m-2. All of these things play a factor for us on earth.

Now when we hear radiation we typically think of bad things, but actually everything emits radiation, depending on the temperature it has. Humans internal temperature is at 37 C and using Stefan Boltzmans law of E= σT^4, we can find out that the average human emits 8.6 MJ of radiation. In fact, the reason there is a light is because of radiation, the visible color spectrum is a small part of the amount of radiation waves, only being 0.4-0.75 µm. There are many different types of radiation, and all are slightly different.

The amount of radiation that reaches where we live changes as the earth rotates around the sun, which is what causes the seasons like winter and summer. Another thing that affects the amount of radiation that reaches us is the time of day. During the day there is more radiation then at night; clouds have a great effect on the temperature and the amount of radiation that reaches us. From the total amount of radiation that is coming from the sun to earth only 45% of it is reaching the earth’s surface, the other part 55% is mostly stopped from the atmosphere.  

So what makes up the atmosphere and what stops the most amount of radiation? The largest gasses in the atmosphere are Nitrogen at 78.084% and Oxygen at 20.946% and 4^th in abundance is Carbon Dioxide at 0.0383%. Even though carbon dioxide is not very much of the atmosphere it plays a critical part in blocking out radiation. Some radiation comes through the atmosphere and warms the earth. The earth then sends out some of its radiation into the atmosphere, then some of that energy is released into the atmosphere and the rest is reflected off some of the gasses to come back down to the earth and the cycle starts over, this is what we call the greenhouse effect.

Flux-Constant or frequent change; fluctuation.

Solar Flare- A brief powerful eruption of particles and intense electromagnetic radiation from the sun's surface, associated with sunspots and causing disturbances to radio communication on earth.

ENSC110 Planetary Energies 8

Fossil Fuel Types

Trevor Craig

Energy Science 110

Fossil Fuel Types: Chemistry and Geology 13

10/21/11         

This lecture was about fossil fuels, different types of fossil fuels and how we can use them. We use a lot of fossil fuels to keep our daily lives going, for our total energy usage 35.03% come from oil, 20.44% from gas, and 24.59% come from coal. The United States primary use for petroleum is for transportation, the amount we use has grown dramatically throughout the years, in 1950 we were using about 3 million barrels of petroleum per day and in 2010 it was a little less than 15 million barrels of petroleum per day, which is a very large increase.

Why do we use fuels like petroleum instead of things like wood, well it all comes down to energy contents of the different substances. Methane or natural gasses have about 50 MJ/kg, where things like wood only has 12-16 MJ/kg, and things like gasoline have a much higher energy content of 42-44 MJ/kg in comparison to wood. Gasoline and oil both have high energy contents, but that is not the only thing that makes them so useful to people; they are liquids so are easy to transport and store, and until recently they have been very abundant.

Oil and coal are both biomasses and are made very similarly but are very different things. Oil starts as algae biomass and with increased temperature and pressure forms into oil shale, then heavy oil at about 100 C, then light oil at 125C, then wet natural gas at 150C, and then dry natural gas at 175C. For coal, it starts as woody biomass, then goes to peat, then lignite, then bituminous coal at 100C-200C, and then anthracite coal at 200C-300C, so as temperature goes up and pressure goes up it becomes its next form.

When we are looking for oil we need to look under the correct conditions, first we need to look in the oil window which is at about 3.5-6.5 kilometer underground and in the temperature between 90°C and 160°C. It also needs a source rock, and reservoir rock layers, and a cap rock layer, if one of these elements is missing then no oil will form, that is why oil fields are so rare only covering a little less than .1% of the land on earth. In oil reservoirs there are mainly 3 different substances in them, first is natural gas with a density of 0.7 kg/m3, then it is oil at 800-1000 kg/m3, then finally water at 960-999 kg/m3. So when companies start pumping out more water than oil we know they are almost out of oil. Oil runs so much of our lives what happens when we all start getting water instead of oil?

Geology- The structure of a specific region of the earth's crust.

Sector- A part or subdivision, esp of a society or an economy.

ENSC110 Fossil Fuel Types 13

Thermodynamics and Order

Trevor Craig

Energy Science 110

Thermodynamics and Order

9/11/11           

This lecture was about energy and how energy is what keeps our communities and lives together. Energy is everywhere, without energy life would not exist. Energy is what runs our cities, energy is what makes the plants grow, energy holds our buildings up, and energy is everywhere we look. So what is energy? Energy is the capacity to do work, and work= force * distance.  Force is mass * acceleration, and is measured in Newton’s, 1N= 1kg*(m/s^2). Energy is measured in joules.

            The amount of energy obtained from a substance varies. There is a reason we use gasoline in our cars instead of things like wood, wood burns at a 12-16 MJ/kg where gasoline burns at 42-44 MJ/kg. At the moment, most of our energy comes from gas and oil, but maybe someday it will come from other sources, like natural gasses, because methane burns at 50 MJ/kg which in comparison of gasoline has a much higher MJ/kg.

            Often times when we are talking about energy we have to mention power. Power is used to help us compare energy. Power is work/time or energy/time. For power the common unit name is watts, 1 watt=1 joule per second. I found it very interesting to look at the amount of watts different things used, for example 1 candle uses 5W, where a bowing747 uses 60 MW. Energy runs our communities and cities, so how much power does that take? Well for 1 human resting they are using 80W compared to the United States primary energy consumption being 3.1*10^ 12W, that is a lot of power.

            The United States uses a lot of energy but the energy is never truly lost, it just changes form. Energy can never be lost or gained. Energy takes many different forms some more useful than others. Here are just a few of the different energy forms: electromagnetic, chemical, thermal, kinetic, electrical, nuclear, and potential. So if energy can never be destroyed why can’t we just continue to use 1 tank of gas or make a perpetual motion machine? The reason we can’t create these sort of things is because all energy conversions are less than 100% effective, usually some energy degrades to heat

            Sometimes the energy of something is usable and other times it is not. The higher energies tend to have higher temperatures and more organization. Another way we measure these energy qualities is by the calorie, 4.18 J (N x m) = 1 calorie. Energy is what organizes our communities and lives, this complexity is not free; we must use energy in order to keep this organization and complexity. Without energy we would be unable to live, with it we are able to do amazing things.

Disintegrate-Break up into parts, typically as the result of impact or decay.

Coherent- Logical and consistent.

ENSC110 Craig Thermodynamics and Order