Future Versions of the iPhone

From an anonymous source inside of Apple Corp. I know these are new functions/specifications coming to future version of the iPhone:

1. You will be able to call the spirit world. (Okay, that is just plain creepy.)
2. The phone will able to translate any human language including the dead ones like Aramaic and Latin. (Hopefully, Apple will have this function at the same time of function 1. This would be good to have if you talk to really old spirits.)
3. It will be able to teleport you anywhere in the world. You just give it the GPS coords of your destination.
4. You will be able to travel back in time up to 10 years. Apple is trying to make it a 1,000 years, but they are not sure if this is possible or not. Time travelling in the future will not be possible on the iPhone. Rats! I guess Apple cannot do everything.)
5. It will be able to zap any cancer tumor.
6. It will be able to monitor your cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar level.
7. It will stop migraines and back pain within 5 seconds. (Apple says this time lag is way too long. They want to get the time down to 1 gigasecond at least.)
8. It will be able to stop tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons within 10 minutes! (Damn, those Apple people are geniuses! See if Microsoft tops that! Again, Apple wants to get this time lag down to 1 minute if possible.)
9. It will be able measure temperature, wind speed, humidity, and barometric pressure in a 50 feet diameter around the iPod. (Hmmm. Not sure if anyone would use these functions unless your a meteorologist. I think functions 8 and 9 will be on the meteorology version, not on the standard version. No price yet on the meteorology version.)
10. The phone will warn the user if he is going to be physically attacked by someone.
11. The phone will have a taser function on it. (I hope this function and function 10 are tied together.)
12. It can materialize any food or beverage you want within 3 seconds.
13. The iPhone will be able to operate any TV and/or radio irregardless of the manufacturer. It will be the ultimate universal remote control. It will be also to change cable and satellite channels irregardless of who the provider is.
14. It can change its color according to your mood. (Is this really necessary?) If you are really sad, it tells you a joke from its 1 million database of jokes to try to cheer you up or it will play you a happy song if you have saved one on the phone. (Again, is this really needed?)
15. In the future you can make the iPhone invisible so no-one can take it without your permission. Like if you leave it in your car.
16. Future iPhones will run on nuclear fusion that will last 10,000 years. You will be dead, but your iPhone will still be working.
17. Not only will future iPhones be water proof (you can take them to the bottom of the ocean) and shock proof (you can drop them off of Mt. Everest), but they will be bullet proof, fire proof, freeze proof, heat proof, and acid proof. They are not for some reason peanut butter proof. So, don't handle the iPhone if you are eating peanut butter.
18. It will be able to convert CO₂ to oxygen.
19. For $1,000 more you can get the deluxe version that converts lead into gold.
20. Other versions will be equipped with sonar, radar, infrared sensors, ultraviolet sensors and x-rays.
21. If you put the iPhone up to your eye, it can scan for eye diseases like glaucoma.
22. A bar code reader so you can scan store products to see if you are getting a good deal or not.

No More Power Cords?

From Ananova.com: "Scientists say they have made a breakthrough which could lead to the end of the electric plug and power lead. A team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology say their 'WiTricity' can 'beam' power across a room, reports the Daily Mail. In the first successful trial of its kind, the team was able to illuminate a 60-watt light bulb seven feet away."

The article says that the WiTricity produces a a 'non-radiative' electromagnetic field that does not harm people, but makes pets and plants crazy (just joking about the pets and plants!)

WiTricity will be great for desktop computers. There is already wireless keyboards and mice and soon there will be wireless monitors. A company from Palo Alto, California is already working on that. The company thinks they will have the technology ready by the end of this year. Cool!

Confidence Ratings for June

A Gallup poll I find interesting. These are confidence ratings from the American public about various organizations. I will list some of them here. For complete list go to Gallup's web site.

• The presidency    25%
• Television news   23%
• Newspapers       22%
• Organized labor  19%
• Big business        18%
• Congress            14%

If you notice President Bush's confidence rating is higher than Congress'. For those people who think Bush should be impeached because of low ratings then logically Congress should be impeached too.

My analysis: The President's rating is low because of the Iraq War and illegal immigration. The public does not feel we are fighting the Iraq War effective enough. This is because of the rules of engagement that won't allow the troops to fight it like a war--in other words to kick butt and win it like America did in WW II. As for illegal immigration, both the Congress and the President have low ratings (Bush a 9% favorable rating; Congress a 3% favorable rating) because they won't secure the border! Period. Illegal immigration is definitely a mess.

All the Gallup poll ratings dropped since last year except for HMOs which stayed at 15%.

CDC's Outrageous Spending Habits

America's hard-earned tax money is at work again. The Center for Decease Control (CDC) is spending taxpayer's money on frivolous things like:

• $1.7 million — including terrorism funds — on a Hollywood liaison program, which happens to be run by a former employee.
• $45 million for conferences, including those featuring prostitutes, protests, and beach parties.
• $30,000 employee saunas in a new $200,000 fitness center that also includes mood-enhancing lightshows and $3,500 worth of zero-gravity chairs.
• Syphilis prevention funds used to feature a porn star’s presentation.
• HIV/AIDS prevention funds spent on a transgender beauty pageant.

And the list goes on. To see a full listing of wasteful spending, you can go to Senator Tom Coburn's web site and download his 115 page report. Maybe, CDC should rename itself the Center of Disorder and Corruption.

New Step Towards The Quantum Computer

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have succeeded in carrying out calculations with two quantum bits (qubits), the building blocks of a possible future quantum computer. For those of you who don't know, ordinary bits in a computer are representation of data. There are only two states of a bit: 1 and 0. If a coin was a bit then heads would be "1" and tails would be "0." Qubits states are both 1 and 0 at the same time. If that same coin was a qubit, then its states would be both heads and tails simultaneously. It's actually a superimposition of states. Once you measure the state then it collapses into one of the two states. Since the states are probabilities (80% chance the state is a 1) have to measure the state a couple of times to be sure it is 1. That's is how the quantum world works--not in exact values. What the researchers were able to do is to create a 'controlled-NOT' calculation using superconducting rings.

What does a quantum computer mean? It means much faster processing speeds than what is currently produced now. For instance, you have a database that has 100,000 unsorted data keys. You want to find a particular key. Potentially, with a standard computer you would have to search all 100,000 keys. With a quantum computer you would only have to search 316 (the square root of 100,000) keys! Think about that for a second. A quantum computer could potentially break any password and decipher any known standard encryption (unless you use quantum cryptography).

The upside to a quantum computer is that it can possibly simulate any complex system, such as the mind, social systems like the stock market, and weather systems like tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. In Seth Lloyd's 2006 book Programming The Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On The Cosmos he claims a quantum computer's simulations would be virtually indistinguishable from real systems it is simulating. In other words it would be a universe in of itself. Actually, he thinks the universe itself might be a quantum computer. Something to ponder.

Anger Fuels Better Decision-Making

According to researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, anger actually seems to help people make better choices. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a way to make Congress angrier so they can make better laws especially about illegal immigration? It seems the only people that are getting angry about that is the voters. That study sure puts a different take on anger management.

What are the lessons of this study? If you want to trick or con somebody into doing something they don't want to do then don't get them angry. For one, they may hurt you, and two they might see through your con. Also, if you are working on a problem that is going nowhere see if you can get yourself angry. If you are with other people (like if you are taking a test) try to keep the anger under control. That is don't swear out loud, or make any disturbing gestures or behaviors. You want to be angry not a raving lunatic. You don't want to be kicked out of class.

A Hispanic Group Against Illegal Immigration

It appears that there is a Hispanic group that is against illegal immigration. How can this be? The main stream press keeps reporting that Hispanics in general support illegal immigration. Then comes along a Hispanic group called You Don't Speak For Me (YDSFM). This group does not support illegal immigration. Never heard of them? Neither did I until I read the World Net Daily.com article. I guess the drive-by-cloned media was more interested in reporting illegal immigrant protests than reporting about Hispanics against illegal immigration. What are this group's principles? They don't want amnesty. They want the borders secured. And they think immigrants should at the very least read and write English. All the above I agree with and probably so do most Americans.

This group contradicts a stereotype some people have about Hispanics and illegal immigrants. That is the general population of Hispanics support illegal immigration. Actually, assuming any naturalized Hispanic would automatically support illegal immigrants from Mexico is a kind of racism. You are basically saying all Hispanics are alike. There is fear in some politicians that if they state they are against illegal immigration that they will make most Hispanics mad and lose the general Hispanic vote. Also, there is a fear if they are against illegal immigration you are against immigration in general or at the very worst a racist. The first fear is not supported by facts and does not really make sense. If come to America legally and go through all the procedures to become naturalized I would think you would be ticked at the very least if some one else came here illegally and got a free pass. According to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) web site you have to pay $400 fee to be naturalized. This includes a fee to fill out an application and a fee for a biometric test. The average length of time to become naturalized is six to nine months. You have to bring alone eight different types of documentation to a Citizen Workshop. When you get interviewed the interviewee asks you questions about the United States history. The Chicago District uses 30 questions. Not too mention you have to speak pretty good English. Going through all that procedures and monetary expense, you really want to make it easy for an illegal to become a citizen? The second fear is understandable. Calling someone a racist or a nativist just because they don't like the current state of illegal immigration is just plain wrong. The Hispanic YDSFM does not support illegal immigration. Are they racists and/or nativists too? This is a law and order (and possible a national security) issue. Not an immigration issue.