Sunday, November 30, 2014

Why Using Your Cell Phone is Like Calling Death

          Cell phones have evolved from blocks the size of bricks with limited capabilities, to flat screened mini computers that can do almost anything we want, from play games to make calls to even watching funny cat videos. As the cell phone's capabilities grew, so did its popularity and the danger. Cell phones have slowly become more and more dangerous to everyone, especially in two particular ways.
         
           Cell phones are distracting. They distract us while we walk and while we drive, and both of which are very important to pay attention to. According to the article "Cell Hell: 7 Ways Your Phone Can Hurt you" talking on a cell phone while driving diverts about 37 percent of a person's brain activity away from the road, which makes it much more likely to crash. However, despite this, 80 percent of drivers admit to talking on their cell phones while driving and 40 percent of drivers claim to have been hit or almost hit by people talking on their cell phones. Granted , not all of these resulted in serious injuries or death, but it was still a dangerous situation that could have easily resulted in something more severe if the circumstances were worse. Phones are also distracting when you cross the street, especially for children. In the same article as used for the last example, 77 children ages 10 to 11 were studied in a virtual reality setting on the effects of cell phone use and danger in crossing the street. According to the study, when asked to talk on their cell phones while crossing the virtual street, the children looked left and right 20 percent less, and the odds of getting hit or almost getting hit by a car increased by 43 percent.

          Cell phones are filthy, disgusting, and covered in all sorts of bacteria. According to the article "Why Your Cell Phone Has More Bacteria Than a Toilet Seat" phones have 10 times more bacteria than a toilet. This amount of bacteria is most dangerous when you do not think about it, which causes you to touch food, your drinks, and your face without even taking into consideration the amount of bacteria. This lack of knowledge because the causes of many illnesses, some of which may be fatal, or at the very least an annoyance. However, this danger can be relatively easily fixed. It is filled with bacteria because it is never cleaned, yet we do everything with it, much like a remote. Also, when you share your phone with other people it spreads new kinds of germs your body may not be accustomed to, which  further increases risk of becoming sick.

          With the amount people who use cell phones, it is relatively easy to say the large majority of people are put in danger by cell phones. They are disgusting when looked at at the microscopic level, and are an enormous a distraction. However,if cell phones are used at the appropriate times, are cleaned regularly, and are shared less, the amount of danger is significantly reduced. Remember, Death is always available to pick up his phone, but if you don't call him you will be fine.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Human beings are a Virus to the Earth

Human beings are a virus to the Earth. We humans share many different qualities with the virus and because of this we are slowly killing the Earth. This theory of humans being a virus, a disease, or a cancer to the planet originated mostly from the film The Matrix, which is by no means a factual or scientific source, but even so, makes a very interesting point on human society.

            The quote from The Matrix that makes this point is, “I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern: a virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.” This is said by Agent Smith, a super-computer in a human shape.   
           
            This quote states three things about humans that are similar to that of a virus, we move around, we consume all of the natural resources of a particular place, and human’s population grows exponentially. This is similar to a virus because a virus moves from host to host, is slowly drains its host of its nutrients, and it grows exponentially.
           
            We pollute the planet, we take its resources, we kill other organisms on this planet more than any other organism, and we do it to every location we chose to inhabit. This never used to be a problem when our population wasn't large, nor when we didn't pollute the environment as much as we did. As our population increases the more pollution we produce and the more resources we consume.

           
            We are a virus to the Earth. We take as much as we want and never give back, we grow exponentially without any thought on how it will affect the environment, and we move from place to place slowly destroying the environment in all of these places. The only things that we can do to stop this is by conserving resources, polluting less, finding new and cleaner ways of producing energy.  Lastly, humans need to know that if we cause the earth to die, we will die with it, and there is no way around that. Our main difference with viruses is that humans have the abilities of choice and reason, which means we can chose to stop spreading and acting like a virus, whereas a viruses only purpose is to expand a consume.