Sugru

This week Mr. Dreier gave us a product called Sugru and told us to be creative with it. Sugru is a rubber-like substance used for fixing or improving things. Naturally I had no idea what to use it on. I searched the house and finally settled on some drumsticks in my basement. I decided to put the rubber on the tips of the sticks for a whole new sound when it dried! I also asked my dad if he needed anything and he asked me to make rubber feet for his guitar pedal. I did, and had fun doing it. I think this product is really ingenious in that it can be whatever you need it to be. I'm interested to see what my classmates did with it! Although I found it difficult, I think the creative aspect of this project is what made it the most fun. Hopefully it lasts a long time!

Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

Sugru was fun; everyone should try it! In the meantime, here is an article about how to improve your creativity from a psychological point of view. Love it, hate it, I don't care...just read it for the interesting points it makes!

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=an-easy-way-to-increase-c



WOW

Another BBC gem was an article I found on how this millionaire wants to send some old people to Mars! I couldn't believe when I read this! He's a former space tourist and he's using his own money to send an elderly couple on a year and a half long trip to Mars! Imagine the psychological effects of living in a small ship with death knocking on your door, going where no one has gone before, living alone for a year and a half! Your brain would explode (if the radiation didn't hurt you first)! This is crazy! Science! Let's all try and think about what it would be like to do this! AND THEN, to further blow my mind, the article mentions that one of the possible travelers is Jane Poynter, who "knows what it's like to live that closely with someone for an extended period of time" because she took part in a biosphere project that kept her locked away in a sealed ecosystem for two years! I don't know which is more crazy- the fact that they're sending old people to Mars, or the fact that Biosphere 2 existed without my knowledge and that people actually lived in that self-sustaining ecosystem (which contains an ocean, rainforest, and desert) for two years! Biosphere reminds me of Jurassic Park! Who even comes up with stuff like that! Can you imagine the psychological effects of living that way?? Try and think about these things for a while! This would make a killer sci-fi novel!
Here is the Mars article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21603490
Here is information on Biosphere 2:
http://www.b2science.org/who/fact

READ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

 

Random Thoughts

A couple of days ago I was browsing the BBC news website, a new habit of mine, and I came across an interesting article on "the psychology of Tetris", and just what it is about the game that has made it so appealing for so many years. I found this article fascinating. I myself have always wondered why sometimes I just can't seem to put down the smartphone or close out of that one game I just love to play (currently Bubbleshooter). Basically the gist of the article was that the game takes advantage of our psychological need to tidy things up, and uses it against us by constantly creating new "messes" we need to solve- fitting the pieces together. The game is indeed highly addictive and, as the article mentions, can cause the "Tetris Effect", which is basically when you dream in Tetris. I have, admittedly and to my own embarrassment, experienced the Tetris Effect with the game Bubbleshooter. It is very frustrating to me because dreaming about the game is an overload and leaves me feeling slightly nauseous. I don't know why...

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121022-the-psychology-of-tetris

Here is a link to the Tetris Effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

At the same time, I tend to draw a line between playing games on phone apps and "gaming". It probably is very hypocritical of me to be judgemental of so-called "gamers", but even I can't justify spending 6+ hours playing one game. I just don't understand the draw. I consistently get bored at around the 1 hour mark. Regardless, I was reading more about actual video game "addiction" and I found this blog post which explained much of what I was skeptical about, though I must admit that when I first read this article, I misread a portion of it and thought it said that a child died because they weren't allowed to play video games, and that just totally ruined the credibility of this whole article. In fact, the author said that a child died due to neglectful parents who spent most of their time playing video games...I'm definitely still suspiscious/unsure of this, but I let it slide because the article actually does do a good job explaining the science behind video game addiction. Read it! I'm not sure I buy into the actual "addiction" description of this whole thing, but there definitely is some reason so many kids just get sucked into that world....

http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/02/19/the-psychology-of-video-game-a/

PSA Review

1. Abby and Katie- I really felt like you were advertising something, good enthusiasm
2. Jared, Bailey, and Mackenzie- I like how you actually listed the stages of development, it was very easy to follow
3. Jennifer and Sarah- very informative, I liked how you had a lot of information about each place

Not really sure what else I'm supposed to say so good job on your PSAs everyone!