SAT & ACT Scandal

          You eat breakfast and wake up full of energy. You’re even a bit jittery. You go to your designated classroom you sit in front of a computer. You upload your picture to the computer and it puts it on your ticket. The next thing you know an administrator is coming up to your desk and checking to see if you picture matches your face.  This is what could start happening in schools around the country.

          Recently 20 students were charged with cheating. Though at least 50 were involved they only had enough evidence to arrest 20. Even one male student took the test for a female. How can it be so easy to steal someone’s identity in a testing facility?

          Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice says, “These reforms close a gaping hole in standardized test security that allowed students to cheat and steal admissions offers and scholarship money from kids who play by the rules." Because of this security problem they will be taking security to new heights. This fall a student will have to bring in a picture of them to verify their identity. Not only will they be checked out at the testing site but students have to label their schools on their form. The school will also receive the picture as well as grade to verify the student goes to their school. “This back-end check will provide another opportunity for cheaters to be caught,” says Rice.  

          With these new ideas I thought why don’t you just send in your picture, but with the back up plan I think it will be very hard to cheat on these tests. This will make it fair for the honorable students to get the scholarships that elude them because of cheaters.

Google Doodles



First ever Google Doodle.



Over the years you use Google and every once in awhile you see a strange logo. You can’t help but wonder why they are there, so you hover your mouse over the picture and see it is so and so's 126th birthday. I personally love these logos and think they are so cool. As of 14 February 2011, Google had 1002 logos in their gallery. After so many images you wonder “What was the first?” 

The first Google Doodle, as they are called, was in honor of the Burning Man Festival of 1998. It was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They created it to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Their intern, Dennis Hwang, has been designing Google Doodles ever since. Now they have become more extensive and entertaining.

On Friday, May 21, 2010 they created a doodle for the 30^th birthday of Pac-man. It was the first playable logo. It is an accurate recreation of the game. It contains 255 levels. On the browser the “I’m feeling lucky” button was replaced with an “Insert Coin” button. When you press it you start the game. If you press it twice you can play with two players. One player uses the arrow keys, while the other player uses the W, A, S, D keys. If you are interested in playing this awesome game you can go to http://www.google.com/doodles/30th-anniversary-of-pac-man.

On Friday, April 15, 2011, Google made their first video doodle. It recalled Charlie Chaplin and celebrated his 122^nd birthday. It was a black and white YouTube video. After it was played it lead you to the Google search engine.

            On June 9^th, 2011 Google celebrated Les Paul’s 96^th birthday. They displayed a interactive electric guitar. When you hovered your mouse over the strings it would play that string or strings. You could also record your music and send it to others. Because this logo was so popular they left it on the website an extra day. If you are interested in playing the guitar go to http://www.google.com/doodles/les-pauls-96th-birthday.
            Though they are plentiful all the logos mean something special and are fun to see. These logos are easy to recognize and just plain interesting. Hope you enjoy the Google Doodles throughout the years.

Left, Right, and Left again! (Even When in a Car?)

You hold on tight as the wheels spin you around in your little black car. It wasn't your fault but you can still see your life flash before your eyes. Observers view the crash from 3 yards away. Debris is flying from the black car; it is spinning out of control as smoke comes up from the hood. You blink a few times and realize you just witnessed a crash. It was all of the sudden. At least you weren't any closer or else you could have been hit. That is what we thought as we sat there in our car in front of the red light. The crash had been sudden but deadly. The car next to us ran the red light and ended up hitting the black car. It happened in a matter of seconds then it was all over. You could see the airbags go off and people get out of their car to help.

Accidents like this happens everyday. Each year nearly 1,000 deaths and 90,000 injuries happen because of running a red light in the nation. Between 1992 and 1998 red light crashes increased by 18%. According to the Federal Highway Administration, "96% of drivers fear being hit by a red light runner upon entering an intersection, yet 55.8% admits to running red lights.

After hearing the alarming news people usually start looking for a cure. They decided to post Red light cameras (RLC) at every intersection. This way they could take a picture of the car and get them a ticket for running the red light. They tested this camera in five different studies and found surprising results.

“The results of this study suggest that the installation of the RLC at these sites did not provide any reduction in accidents, rather there has been increases in rear end and adjacent approaches accidents.”

"After cameras were installed, rear-end crashes increased for the entire six-jurisdiction study area… After controlling for time and traffic volume at each intersection, rear-end crash rates increased by an average of 27% for the entire study area.”

“Exhibit 2 (after inserting cameras) indicates the red light running treatments have:

* Contributed to a 4.9% increase in fatal and injury rear-end collisions; and
* Contributed to a 49.9% increase in property damage only rear-end collisions.

With results like these, new ideas are still being formed. So, next time you go across the intersection go back to the old cross the road rule, "Look left, right, then left again."