Thanks to Wikicommons.

The dangers of speaking out. Protesters fired upon in Yemen by security forces.

Fantastic Fish Fatalities! Dead fish cover the surface of a marina after they became trapped.

When the going gets tough… Mexico continues to battle drug crime as Police chief flees to US for her life.

Thanks to Wikicommons.

It seems we humans are doomed.

Movies and TV would have you believe that robots will destroy us in a reign of destruction.

We’ve already seen this recently in the computer Watson’s victory on Jeopardy against human champions.Computer brains are better than our brains.

Computers and robots are also regarded as the enemy of the blue collar worker. Why have humans build cars when robots do it faster? Right?

Well, Paul Krugman notes that computers threaten more jobs as

any routine task — a category that includes many white-collar, non-manual jobs — is in the firing line.

What makes this news so bad as Krugman notes is that

It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.

Over at Free Exchange, R.A., questions the gloom and doom noting that

As far as I know, people currently represent 100% of final demand; machines aren’t yet out there purchasing goods for their own consumption. Without people there is no economy

Of course, being a good dismal scientist, the post goes on to note that unemployment is still an issue but it may be the governments, rather than the robots, fault.

So the good news, robots may not be the enemy (until they start to eat us). The bad news, unemployment is still a real issue no matter its cause.

Learn about degree and certificate options, course overviews, admission processes and credit requirements at an information session for the UMBC Engineering Management and Systems Engineering graduate programs. The session will be held 12-1pm Wednesday APril 13 in room 456 of the Information Technology and Engineering building.. Ted Foster, Assistant Dean of the UMBC College of Engineering and IT and Graduate Program Director of both programs, will be there to answer questions. RSVP by sending email to professionals at umbc.edu.

The Engineering Management Program at UMBC combines a practical business approach with an in-depth technical concentration and emphasizes how to manage people and complex projects. Courses are developed and taught by industry experts, and are designed to address real-world problems in the workplace. Both a Master’s Degree a Graduate Certificate program are offered.

The Systems Engineering program couples the experiences of the region’s top engineers with the expertise of UMBC’s world-class engineering faculty. This program designed in colloboration with some of the leading employers in this field balances practical application and theoretical understanding. Systems Engineering students experience a rich curriculum that covers all aspects of a system’s life cycle using state-of-the-art principles, practices, and technologies. Our Systems Engineering graduate programs are designed for working engineers, taught by the region’s top systems engineers from leading defense contractors and overseen by a board of faculty and industry leaders. Both a Master’s Degree a Graduate Certificate program are offered.

Classes in both Engineering Management and Systems Engineering are conveniently offered in the evening on the UMBC campus, located just five minutes from BWI Airport, with easy access from I-95 and the 695 Beltway.

See flyer.

Some of the students and faculty here are old enough to remember older movies that were shown in 3D. They were full of hands or other objects reaching out of the screen to grab the audience. Well, it seems that fad is back and in a big way, but one should ask themselves: Am I really missing out?

Just like 7.1 surround sound audio tracks, there just aren't that many movies out there made in 3D yet. Why are people flocking to purchase all new 3D television sets and a half dozen of those 3D glasses? Cable or Satellite TV of course. Commercials have popularized the idea that 3D TVs gives that in-your-face experience when in reality most of the 3D create a sense of depth into the screen as if you were looking into an aquarium. Watching all of your favorite shows in 3D would be cool if you don't mind sacrificing picture quality. That's right, programs broadcasted to your set-top box and even movies do not have the full 1920x1080 we have come to know as Full HD. The culprit is bandwidth. Cameras used to create 3D images use two lenses (to simulate the stereoscopic effect of your eyes); this means that you are getting two images slightly overlaid on one another. It is because of this that production crews have shrunk images down to be able to fit through the 10.2 Gbps limit of HDMI cables (or component cables) and the cable line going to your set-top box. Enter HDMI rev. 1.4 with its 15.6 Gbps limit. This has allowed Blu-ray players to pass full 3D-HD images to your TV, or double the resolution of current HDTVs (because making that would be too expensive for manufacturers right now).

The craze over 3D TV has only halted the release of 4k TVs (TVs with a resolution of 4096x2304) and even higher frame rates in movies. So ask yourself: What am I really missing out on?

Below is film critic Roger Ebert's thoughts on the matter.