Design Poetics Video poem by kellie lorence

Special Mouthpieces for Football Players

Stanford University is currently using special mouth pieces to see how much of an impact head injuries are on football players. They plan to expand these mouth pieces to not only foot ball players but also to lacrosse, hockey, and soccer players. The mouth guards were created by Seattle-based X2 Imact. They hope to also create an affordable alternative to specialized helmets that have been used in head injury studies.

This is a good invention because head injuries during football games are a growing concern. They tested the product on dummies and are still collecting data.I believe this would be a great idea because it can help them find out what to do to help people not get concussions and other harmful brain injuries.

Design Poetics 2&3 Kristopher Wiltsey's poem

Car to Car Communication

Car to car communication is the latest technology being researched by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. These have special radars, lasers, and video sensors that help the cars know if another vehicle is coming in close contact with them. These will help the driver know when it is safe to cross an intersection and if there is traffic.

This new technology is interesting because it is going to be like having a Smart car. It will tell you what to do and let you know if someone is entering your blindspot. This technology will hopefully benefit drivers and help keep the roads safe to drive on.

Tests are still being ran and research is still being done on these communicating cars. But, within the next 10 years our cars might be able to talk one on one like people do.

Goodbye Facebook, Hello Google +

The social network, Facebook is upgrading its old layout and adding a new one. However, most people prefered the old facebook and moving onto bigger and better things such as Google +. Google at first made Google + private and only certain individuals were invited to use it. Now Google has opened Google + to everyone. With Google + you can create "circles" and you can even add celebrities to your circle and get updates about them.

Google + is like a combination of facebook, tumblr, and twitter. You can communicate with your friends, blog and write messages, and follow people and keep updated on their life and other things. Something really cool about Google + is you can video chat with other people. On facebook, you can video chat but only with one person. On Google + you can chat with mulitple people at a time. I created a Google + account the other day. It is a little confusing at first but I finally got the hang of it. I predict that Google + will become more popular than facebook in the next couple of years.

Longer Term Missions for NASA

NASA created an partically inflatable habitat that can allow astronauts to stay in space for a longer time and also remain safe. They tested the habitat in the barren area of Arizona because it has the same kind of terrain as space does. They sent the astronauts to this habitat to sleep overnight and would have them do stimulation work during the day every day. The structure is currently made of a hard cylindrical shell with some inflatable parts. There are four rooms; two outside additional for cleaning dust off and for hygiene and a inflatable part that gives the habitat a second level for sleeping and other recreational activities. Inside the habitat the astronauts will be able to control the temperature and other things with iPhones and iPads.

They created this vessel so that astronauts will be able to survive while living on the Moon, Mars, an asteroid, or just free flying. Deep space missions are dangerous because of the radiation that causes cancer and solar flares. Being able to stay in space longer can really change space science. They could physically go out into space and study different space specimens. They hope to have a way to test a flying unit in space within the next 10 years. I find this absolutely fascinating. I was upset when I found out they were cutting back on NASA's funds but I think if they could successfully create a unit that can safely keep astronauts in space for longer change NASA history.