IRB Post 3

"I don't remember them days too horrowshow. Don't call me Dim no more, either. Officer call me." Page 172. This quote symbolizes the change of the adulthood on all of Alex's old buddies. Now they have changed and are no longer up to the same antics as before. His nemesis and his friend are both cops and Alex sees how growing up changes a person. Maybe it is even the fact that Alex was a bad influence and his absence allowed them to become good people. Alex predicted all this earlier in a dream I remember about George and DIm appearing as obedient disciplinarians.

Clockwork Orange Post #2

My opinion of the book so far is that it will be interesting. It has been a long time since I read a book that kept me intrigued and wanting to read more. The characters have a very distinct and individual feel to them. I almost connect them with real world people in my life and in the media. I saw the movie before, but this book shows so much more. The opening scenes where the boys run around and beat up people on the street is unlike the book. The book goes so much deeper in the book with the fights with other gangs and the mischief that they cause. I really have become fascinated with the made up language because I now and starting to understand a good part of the words that they use. Its been a new learning experience into language and helps me think more about the careful nature of making up words. I can try to guess what words mean based on the context they've been used in multiple passages. PAGE 43

A Clockwork Orange- By Anthony Burgess

The most important thing that I read about so far is not about the content of the book, but in which the style was written. I feel that the language used by the author was something that is hard to understand and will take a great while getting used to. I am able to get the gist of what the author is implying but some parts are just generally confusing. I am hoping that I can get a better grasp at what he means, but I will be reading slowly until I finally learn the language. Page # 11

DO NOW

If I had $25 for Barnes & Nobles I would first go into the sections that I find most interesting. I usually enjoy fiction about history or science fiction, but there is a large amount of books that I like. If I was looking for something specific, I would ask a salesperson to help me out. I usually read the back of the books to tell if I like what is going on and find the plot line interesting, but I also like to read a few random pages in the middle to see if the style of writing is something that I can read for a long time. I look for familiar authors that I enjoy and find sequels to books that I have read before.

Long Read: Bike Thiefs

This article is about the horrible stories of bike theft. The writer of this article has had personal experience with the trouble involved in bike theft. He had one bike stolen from him in Manhattan, and decided to lead a vigilant hunt into find the people who take bikes. Bike thieves are generally drug addicts who sell the bikes for money that can be used to buy drugs. These people are desperate and sadly find this theft as the only way to support their addiction because bikes are so easily available on the streets. This man also finds fault in the system in which bike theft is treated by police. The police are only able to charge the thief with misdemeanors. This means that the only thing the criminal will get is a fine and rarely any jail time. There is a data registry of all the bikes, but only a small percentage of bike thefts get reported by victims. I feel that a lot of people see no point in reporting these crimes, because bikes are barely ever retrieved. The author says that after he had his first and second bike stolen, the man decided to start buying more bikes and fixing tracking devices onto them in order to locate his stolen bike. The first tracker malfunctioned and his bike was never seen again. His second attempt was more advanced, but the purchase of the bike was sketchy. He met the seller on a street corner and the bike seemed almost brand new, but the price was too low. After attaching a Garmin locator onto the potentially stolen bike, he waited to see if it was going to get stolen. Instead, the battery died after a month and the bike began to just have part stolen from the bike. The chain must have been too difficult to unlock. Chains are created all the time in an effort to prevent bike theft, but they rarely work. Kryptonite release intensely strong U-locks, but these are easily broken. Even the soft rubber part of a pen is capable of unlocking these devices. Some thieves even use freon devices to freeze the chain and break it easily. Eventually, after many bikes, the Author started doing stakeouts with cops and tracking these bikes. THe hard truth is that bike theft is a major problem. Theft is something that discourages people from riding bikes. Even though they are healthy and cut time, bikes are not utilized optimally because bikes are so hard to keep a hold onto. I think we should really help keep bikes safe. If there were locations that made bike parking safe and theft-free, than these great tools with be used more and improve our two-wheeled world.

LOng Read: New SOlar Fuel

The article I read is about Lonnie Johnson. This man is a self-made inventor who grew up in a lower-income household, and eventually rose up to a self-made millionaire who creates advanced technology for the government. This man was the inventor of the Super Squirter water gun, but is now working on a new way to turn solar energy into usable energy. His new idea involves heating hydrogen and then splitting the ions separate from the protons. The heated components flow into another area, which will then be redistributed and combined so that the hydrogen will not go to waste. When the components move, this creates energy, which can be stored in a battery or other device. This idea is still in the prototype phase, but contains no mechanical parts even though it is labeled as an engine. The whole idea is still in early testing because it was hard for Lonnie to convince the Navy to fund his research. They thought his idea was too similar to another idea that failed in the 80s. Lonnie’s idea was much different and he claims is works twice as efficiently as the photovoltaic cells that are used nowadays. This process is so efficient; that Lonnie claims it will even be a competitor with coal energy as a form of energy. This improvement to our environment using renewable resources will be a great way to lead our country and world into a better future. I think that we are to reliant on fossil fuels, and to live happily and comfortably in the future as population increase, we will need to find new things such as this to fuel our lifestyles. It saves money and our environment and inventors like Lonnie Johnson are true heroes of our country who actually try to make a difference for the bettering of our Planet. Inventors such as Eli Whitney or Nikola Tesla are found in history books, but are very sparse in this day and age. With men like these in our country, we can spur improvement to all the things we take for granted. We need major improvements to energy, along with transportation, water, and other things that we use everyday. It is this type of technology that requires advancement to take us out of the Twentieth century, and into a world of tomorrow.

Longreads: Webcam Hacker

The article I have read is about a creepy and mysterious new hacker who isn't into stealing money or scamming his victims. Instead, he uses the power of technology to go into someone's hard-drive and completely learn everything about this. THese hackers have been sending random messages to their victims, and then going into their webcam and watching live video of what these people are doing. Girls report getting random IM messages from people who they believe to be their friends. But then victim will ask their friend, and there will be no recollection of ever exchanging a message. Technology has really made it easy to have people watch... all the time. Most computers on the market come with a webcam standard, which means that anything in front of the desktop is visible to the lens. Victims report that the messages will describe the layouts of the room and who they've been having sex with. THis disturbing thought makes me even creeped out to use my Mac desktop, which contains a webcam. The victims said they notice the small light next to the camera to be on, even when they aren't using the camera, which means someone is watching. I feel that most people don't even pay attention to those small details and wouldn't notice if they were being stalked. These online stalkers can also access all the past photos that were taken, and what their e-mails contain. These hackers say that websites suck as Facebook and Myspace make it very easy to find victims. ALl someone needs to do is click on a link and a virus is downloaded that allows access. THe FBI is investigating such cases, but this threat is hard to stop in such technologically advanced crime. Hackers are always around and you never know what they can do.