A To Z Challenge: Technology And The Next Big Thing (That Could Invade Your Privacy To Extremes)

Technology is science applied to real-life problems. Physics equations and observations are all well and good--but technology allows the enormous range of scientific fields to play a very large part in people's everyday lives. The term technology has various uses: It can refer to a specific subset of machines (such as space technology) and it can refer to the total knowledge and capability of a society.

To be honest, the second part of this post (the "recent developments" section) came to me before the introduction. Google Glass is a piece of technology I've been wanting to post about for a while and the A to Z Challenge seemed like an ideal spot, seeing as I've already proposed some controversial subjects in previous posts.

Antonio Zugaldia, CC-BY-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Google Glass is a pair of glasses with the capabilities of a smartphone. You give it orders to give you directions, send messages, take photographs and videos, etc., and all while wearing the device as feedback appears in a small screen on one side of the eyeglass frame. While some people (me included) don't like the idea of having multimedia so close to one's actual eyeball, the privacy concerns have to be the most argued-over bit (though there are also concerns about distracted driving and so on).

The problem? There is no way for someone else to tell if a person wearing the glasses is recording--which could mean your face is unwittingly being uploaded to Google's servers and could be played back by the person who recorded the footage, or, perhaps, by governments; facial recognition software could be applied to identify crowds of people just because someone walked through a busy location with Google Glass recording. There aren't any limits to when someone can record, either; imagine all the moments most people would absolutely not want saved for another person to see.

Google Glass is scheduled to arrive some time in 2014, according to the Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt.

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Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/technology
http://techland.time.com/2013/04/23/three-questions-i-hope-google-answers-before-google-glass-is-released/
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-glass-2014-eric-schmidt-20130423,0,3402891.story
http://www.google.com/glass/start/

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Will you be wearing the new Google Glasses once they're released? If you run across someone wearing them, will you be worried?


-----The Golden Eagle

On YA Fiction: Political Messages

Recently, I've been noticing a trend in Young Adult, particularly in Science Fiction and its sub-genres Dystopian/Futuristic Fiction. There seem to be more and more books that revolve around a central political idea: over-reaching government.

Take Matched by Allie Condie, Possession by Elana Johnson, The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, Gone by Michael Grant, Little Brother and For the Win by Cory Doctorow, The Tomorrow Code by Brian Falkner, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and I could come up with others if I had more time. I'd also mention Divergent by Veronica Roth and Wither by Lauren Destefano, since they seem to be political based on their blurbs, but I haven't read those yet so I can't say for sure.

As you may have noticed, many of those are quite popular (*cough*The Hunger Games*cough*), and in addition, many of them seem to be rather anti-government. The Giver by Lois Lowry seems to be the exception, though it could still be taken as anti-government, since POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT one of the central characters is influential in preventing pain within the city--this, of course, also leads to more control, but everyone besides a certain few are oblivious to suffering.

Another element that repeats itself is revolutionaries/the resistance. In almost all of the above books, the main character joins or helps an organization (whether paramilitary or not) that, in turn, has some kind of showdown with the omnipresent government.

Now, while I don't mind politics in books, the constant battering of "Government Is Evil!" is beginning to make me wonder why it's cropping up so often.

Is it the political climate today, with a bad economy, constant protests, the Arab Spring, the war in Afghanistan and very recently Iraq? Is it a response to the perceived "rise of China" and Communism, the nuclear capabilities of other countries that might not have the Western world's best interests in mind?

Or is that reading too much of it, and it's just an attempt to appeal to teenagers that feel oppressed by their peers, their parents, society in general? But then again, it's not just teenagers reading YA; it attracts a wide range of readers.


What do you think?

And do you mind politics in the books you read? Is it something you're attracted or repelled by, in general?


-----The Golden Eagle

Awards and Miscellany

First, I have three awards to accept:

The Summer Blog Award from Carol Kilgore at Under the Tiki Hut:

It's such a summer-y picture, and a great award to receive--especially because it's cold outside! Thank you, Carol!

The Fearless Follower from Carolyn Abiad at Serendipity:

Thank you so much, Carolyn! (If you aren't following her blog, I highly suggest you do! Her posts are always fascinating.)

The Versatile Blogger Award from Misha at My First Book:

Thanks, Misha! I do love the look of this award, with the flower on the side and the words in the background. :)

I'd pass them on today, and I want to pass them on to you lovely bloggers, but I've got ground to cover and I don't have the time--nor will I have time later to visit the rest of your blogs. The rest of Life, you know.

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Speaking of life, we lost power on Monday. I was online, commenting on blogs, and suddenly it tells me I have no Internet connection. The power company got the electricity back on within two hours or so, but apparently it affected over a thousand people in the area.

(Of course, if houses were self-sufficient with solar, wind, and/or hydrogen, this wouldn't have been an issue. Thousands of people would not have lost power, and the power company would not have had to go out and mess with all that wiring.)

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Did you hear Richard Holbrooke died? He was the former Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It's sad because a) it's sad when anyone dies, and he did a lot of work, in many different things. b) because this probably will affect the USA relationship with Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is not the best it could be right now. He helped it along.

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Fractal awesomeness:

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

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I just realized how ridiculous it is that in the 2007 Beowulf movie Beowulf is the dragon's dad. And that Hrothgar is Grendel's dad. All courtesy of the seductive, evil water-demon of course (AKA Angelina Jolie.)

Ha. Har. Hrm.

I usually like what Neil Gaiman does, (he co-wrote the screenplay) but the plot does not follow the book at all, except in the loosest sense. I don't think I'll be watching it--I prefer it when the movies stick to the books! (Unless they do a spectacular job of making a new plot, which does not often happen.)

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Excellent writing day on Tuesday. I managed over 5,000 words and I got through a tricky spot. One character isn't quite in the right place, but that can be fixed so that she is in the right place or that she doesn't go there at all.

I hope you all have great writing progress yourselves, and I hope that there isn't too much snow to be shoveled on your sidewalks . . .


-----The Golden Eagle

The Answer! (Plus: Award, and Other Miscellany)

The moment has arrived! I shall now reveal who exactly the kind of person it is in the Through the Keyhole Blogfest entry I posted on Monday.

First off, most of you who guessed said that you thought it was a male widow.

Partly right, although not completely. I wasn't aiming for anything so tragic.

He--and yes, it is a he, you were right on the gender!--is a traveling writer, doing research for his book, going to conventions/meetings, and the computer is what he writes on; the CD-RW has his files burned onto it. The green string is indeed a luggage tag, a remnant of his last trip to the airport. The picture of the couple is an image of him and his wife, but they're not divorced/separated, and there's no sorrowful backstory--he's just traveling abroad, while his wife stays home. They're a happy couple. :) The picture is a reminder . . .

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Now, L'Aussie awarded me the Fair Dinkum Award.

So, I'd like to give L'Aussie a big THANK YOU! and  *hug* for awarding me. :) It is much appreciated!

Me being American, I'd never heard of a Fair Dinkum before--L'Aussie apparently anticipated that, and told the award-ees to guess what they thought a Fair Dinkum was. (Read my comment HERE.) Hopefully, I got it at least somewhat right. :P

I also get to pass it on, too, and here are the people I'm awarding next with the Fair Dinkum Award (trying to be sure that no one's nabbed 'em before me . . . LOL):

Robyn Campbell
Brian
Sangu Mandanna
Madeleine
Dominic de Mattos

. . . and there are many others out there--Blogger seems to be a Fair Dinkum melting pot!

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Have you heard that the US Department of the Interior wants to strip Northern Rocky Mountain wolves of their Endangered Species status?

Now, look: I have absolutely nothing against saying that they're not on the brink of extinction. Hooray for that, actually. But LET'S NOT HUNT THE WOLVES. Please. If they're going to take wolves off the list, DON'T let them be hunted back onto it!

Remember what happened last time the wolves were killed, and there weren't enough of them out there? The ecosystem collapsed. Deer populations, (which are still issues in some parts of the country) went wild, eating, then starving themselves out as they ate everything, killing their food supplies due to lack of control by predators. We NEED the predators!

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You know that site that's been circulating for the past few days, every since Jen posted that awesome interview with Miranda Dickinson? Authonomy.com, set up by Harper Collins? It sound like an awesome site, and a good opportunity for getting your work out there. Publishers, agents, and other people like that will be able to read it, and you get exposure. People get to read your books and comment on them. Publishers have actually published works by the authors there.

Well, apparently you can't use it unless you're over 18.

*sigh* I don't happen to be over 18, which means that option's out the window. What's with the rule, anyway? Doesn't make sense to me.

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You may have noticed that I took down the Other Blogs page I had up, with all you bloggers' buttons. I don't hate your buttons--in fact, many of them are quite nice, and I make those kind of images myself--but the format was acting up giving me tons of white space, and it's easier to just add people to the blogroll on my sidebar. So, if you were on the Other Blogs page, rest assured that you are on the blogroll. :)

(I might set up one of the moving, repeating sequences of buttons, if I can figure out how . . . or I may just put up the page again in the future.)

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It snowed ALL DAY yesterday. Non-stop. There are several inches on the ground right now, and it's supposed to snow more this week--hooray! Not that I get snow days, being homeschooled and all . . . but it's the symbolic aspect. Plus, I love snow.


-----The Golden Eagle

Random Things

Quinn at Seeing, Dreaming . . . Writing awarded me! Thank you so much, Quinn!

It is the Versatile Blogger Award, and the rules are to list 7 things about yourself and pass it on to 7 other bloggers.

Now, I've already received this award before and answered the questions, but I've decided to list another 7 things about myself as the Random Things from the title. Hopefully I won't bore you to death.

1. I don't write emotions fluidly. At least, I don't when it comes to the characters I'm currently working with. The emotions that I type out just don't feel right now of the time . . . or they're too important or they seem false. (Do you have this problem?)

2. NaNoWriMo, I am going to get you! I passed the 10,000 mark yesterday, but I know compared to some you that's not much! I've seen numbers in the 20,000-40,000+ range. Wow. Those are a lot of words, people! Keep it going!

And for a bonus, this is me right now:

(Meter HERE)

3. You know that post, "How To: Beaming Someone Up Into A Spaceship"? I've got something like that planned for tomorrow, too; I'm interested in seeing how it's going to go over.

4. Don't forget to switch your clocks this Saturday night! Daylight Savings Time. I don't like DST much. Too much hassle, and not all countries observe it. (If you want a really good site that tells you all about DST, go HERE. I love those nodes.)

5. So the Republicans took over the House of Representatives. I'm ecstatic, everyone. Extremely happy with the direction the government is taking.

*sighs* I can't really say I'd be ecstatic with the Democrats, either. No one really wants bipartisanship where they're not trying to destroy the other's agenda and no one really wants to collaborate. At least, they seem pretty darn stubborn to make things as difficult as possible.

6. I have 180 Followers! 180! That's . . . awesome, everyone. Thank you, all of you, for following! :)

7. I'll be sure to check out you fellow Crusaders soon! I signed up for the Writer's Platform-Building Crusade yesterday, (see below post) and I have to get started on that list. :)


So. Now that all is said and done: Thank you for awarding me once again, Quinn! (You really should go check out his blog. Go on. *nudges* Come back once you've followed.)

Now, for those I am going to award . . . I'm going to do what the lovely Jules (you should go check out her blog as well, everyone) decided to do, and award the followers in the first 5 rows on the Follower gadget. (If you see yourself there and get shoved back by newer followers when you come back later . . . well, consider yourself awarded anyway. :))

Have a great Friday, everyone!


-----The Golden Eagle

Tag, Award, Random

The tag comes from Shaynie at The Book Blog! She tagged anyone who liked Sherlock Holmes. :)

1. Do you like Sherlock Holmes?

Yes!

2. Would you ever like to go overseas and work with a relief agency in a war-torn country?

It would depend on the type of relief work that I'd be doing. It would also depend on where I'd be doing the relief work . . .

3. Do you like foreign films?

I've never watched a foreign film. (Is this bad?)

4. Do you like writing?

No. I HATE writing! I loathe it! The beings who possess my mind and force me to write are cruel enough that they don't even make me like the awful chore!

*ends good-humored sarcasm* Yeah. I love it.

5. Will you be doing NaNoWriMo? What's your book about?

I'm not going to be doing NaNoWriMo, although I will try to write as much as I can next month.

As for what my book is about, it's . . . complicated. Not to mention it has CLASSIFIED written all over it, (even to my mom because I don't want to spoil the plot for her :D), but I can say that there are spaceships. And dictatorships.

6. What's your favorite animal?

I love lots of different animals, although I get the feeling you've already guessed I like birds of prey.

7. Have you ever been to a foreign country?

I was adopted from China, so yes, I HAVE been to a foreign country! Unfortunately, I don't remember a thing. I flew over Korea, (stopped in Seoul), Russia, and Canada. Plus Alaska.

8. Are your ears pierced?

Nope.

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The award comes from Rachel Morgan at Rachel Morgan Writes!


It is the Cherry On Top Award.

Thank you, Rachel! :)


I received this award a short time ago, and already answered the question, although it was phrased a little different than this: If I had the chance to go back and change one thing in my life, would I, and what would it be?


I'll answer it again anyways. No, I would not, because I've learned too much and done too much in my life to warrant going back and trying to change it. :)

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Now, for the random!


If you visited my blog yesterday, you may have noticed that I didn't appear to have published a post yesterday--when I DID. It was the book review of Krik? Krak! which I accidentally told Blogger to publish on the 17th. Darn. So, if you I slipped up on NaBloWriMo, I didn't!


Only an absolute bookworm would get hyper at the idea of traveling to two libraries in one day and getting out a million books at each, which I will presumably be doing tomorrow. They're both very good libraries, too. Plenty of YA, and MG, and Adult, and even DVDs. Utopia, people.


Which only makes me more frustrated when I learn that the District's representative wants to CUT THE LOCAL LIBRARY'S BOOK BUDGET DOWN TO ZERO. Otherwise known as nil. Zip. Nothing. They may have given the librarians a salary hike, but no new books if this budget thing continues!


They don't do interlibrary loans around here, either. Darn it!

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It's supposed to snow tomorrow. SNOW. It's only the end of October! Whew. But I don't mind--I actually like snow. :)


Have a great Thursday, everyone!


-----The Golden Eagle

5 Awesome Blogs

G'day, everyone! Saturday again, and with that comes this post . . .

1. A Girl of Many Colors

2. Caliginosity

3. Journies of a Jesus Freak

4. The Storming Souls

5. Sounds of Melodies

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IRONY.

It's so very . . . ironic. I find it amusing.

For example, Moody's Economy is saying that it might lower the US Treasury rating. At the same time, Moody's is being grilled in Washington for its flawed ratings of stocks/bonds/etc.

Apparently Apple has a policy against the ridicule of public figures, and turned down a guy named Fiore's app because he's a political cartoonist. Lo and behold, he wins the Pulitzer for his work. Apple then goes and requests him to rethink that app of his.

Life is full of things like that. As the teacher says in Wicked: "Irony is the juxtaposition of two incongruous situations." (Or at least something along those lines; I'm miserable at remembering phrases.)

-----The Golden Eagle

5 Awesome Blogs

Okay, I said I'd do this in a comment after Kai gave me the idea, so here are 5 blogs that I think stand out in the blogsphere these days: (I'm following something like half a hundred, so it was hard to choose . . .)

1. Icewolf's Den

At the moment, you may want to check out the Inora/Charry Fest going on, which is hilarious . . . lol.

2. Cori's blog

Right now, she'd hosting a photo contest, so check that out!

3. Fearless

Art is great, isn't it?

4. *Fish Flakes*

Hosting a caption contest, and the blog is nicely fishy . . .

5. Dreamer

Artistic and interesting. She also has another blog, Pages, which is excellent.

There you have it. Maybe I'll do this again sometime, and list more!

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IT. SNOWED. The day before yesterday, I was wearing shorts and tee-shirt, and I was hot, and the next day I have to walk around in long pant and a sweatshirt, and then snow came down!! Granted, I wasn't really made at the skies, but c'mon! 80s/30s do NOT mix.

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Anyways, can you believe that the Kyrgyzstan government has been booted out of office? The President is somewhere in the south, 70+ people were killed when the government shot at protesters, and the interim government is demanding that the former president resign immediately. And it's not helping that the USA has an important army base there that takes supplies into Afghanistan. We need it, Kyrgyz!!