http://www.helicopterplay.com/helicopter/thehelicoptergame.php

Before you read the rest of my blog play the game above so you can have some idea of what I’m talking about.  Also, post your high score in the comments!

For my computer science 122 class I have to write a program that is at least 1500 lines of code for my final project.  I’ve decided to recreate the Helicopter Game (link above) which was fairly popular while I was in middle school.  The object of this game is to navigate a helicopter though a tunnel, avoiding the ceiling, floor, and obstacles, for as long as possible.  My take on the game will feature a dragon instead of a helicopter and the dragon will be able to spit a limited number of fireballs to destroy obstacles.

I am looking forward to starting this game and learning a ton from making it.  This will be my first game and program with graphics, so I am going to have to teach myself a lot outside of class in order to complete the project.  I plan to use a library called Allegro for c++ which was designed to help programmers create games.  I’m really excited about this project because making a game is a goal I think every programmer has.  It will be fun to watch others play my game and (hopefully) have a good time.

If you have any ideas concerning a title for my game, tell me in the comments.  Also, I’m looking for someone who is going at making computer images because I need some graphics for my game.  Thanks for reading!

Option 1 – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/effective-regulation-and_b_1810282.html

This articles written by Steven Cohen, the executive director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, outlines how the federal government can effectively regulate business to ensure sustainability without negatively impacting these businesses.  Though Cohen does admit that regulation can slow growth, he says that the growth that does occur is more solid and dependable.

Option 3 – http://blogs.worldwatch.org/transformingcultures/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Ecovillages-and-the-Transformation-of-Values-Dawson.pdf

This article is about the ways in which people can live as a community in order to promote sustainability.  It outlines the ways people can live cooperatively in order to mitigate their ecological impact on the earth, while being more economically efficient and building strong local communities.

The focus of my ‘Online Deliberation’ project/paper will be on http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews. This site is of particular interest to me because  it is one of the main places I get my news and the deliberation that goes on in the comments often plays an important part in shaping my opinion on different stories.  It will be interesting to critically analyze the quality of deliberation on the site and see what I am truly exposing myself to.

/r/news is an appropriate site because reddit is focused on creating discussions and deliberation.  Its comment sections typically have lively debates, fact checking, and suggestions on how to solve various problems.  There is no better comment section than on reddit, which makes it a great site to use for this project.

I have a very good impression of the quality of deliberation that goes on in the reddit.com/r/news comment section.  Every comment section is filled with people making thoughtful comments on the stories which lead to very productive discussions.  People on reddit value backing up their points with sources and keeping debate civil.  This culture leads to a fantastic quality of deliberation.  However, there seem to be less viewpoints represented than would be on a mainstream news outlet, so the deliberation taking place on reddit often may not include every point of view.

If you read last week’s passion blog you’ll recall that I wrote about screen scraping and how I planned to use it in order to pull stock quotes off of Google.  Well, I have some good news to share with everyone, it works!

Pictured above is a screen shot of my program so far.  It prompts the user for the ticker symbol of the stock they would like to look up and then tells the user various information about the stock. Note that this is not how the program will run in the final version, this version of the program was made merely to test pulling stock quotes off of Google.

The next part of the program will be easier to code, but harder to design.  I must design an algorithm that will decide when to buy and sell stocks based on all of the numbers I pull off of Google.  I have barely any idea where to begin.  The stock market has so many variables, numbers, and figures that it makes my math textbooks look like bedtime stories.  This week I’m going to continue researching the stock market and see if I can’t get a very basic, and probably bad, algorithm running.  If you have any suggestions or ideas, please let me know.  I can use all the help I can get.

Nuclear energy has never had the best reputation in the United States.  Incidents like the Chernobyl disaster, the Three Mile Island accident, and the latest happenings at Fukushima have all reinforced the idea that nuclear energy is an accident waiting to happen.  The fact that the citizens of the United States hold some of these ideas is quite a shame, considering how clean and safe nuclear energy truly is.  According to the World Nuclear Association, out of the fifteen thousand cumulative reactor-years ( the time individual reactors have been running) the three incidents I cited earlier have been the only mishaps.

The US Energy Information Administration states that there are 104 commercial reactors in the United States, which together, produce 806 TWh of electricity a year.  That is 19.6% of the United State’s electricity generation.  Since that start of the ‘nuclear renaissance’ in 2001, which was kicked up due to fossil fuel prices and concern about the environment, nuclear energy has grown much more popular in the United States.  In fact, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just approved the construction of two new nuclear reactors at the Vogtle energy plant in Georgia.  These will be the first nuclear reactors built in the United States since 1970.

Also, support for nuclear energy is growing.  The Pew Research Center found that 44 percent of Americans favor increased use of Nuclear power while 49 percent of Americans oppose it.  I believe this trend will continue as more and more people discover the facts behind nuclear energy and realize that it is nothing to fear.

United States policy makers should find an effective way to educate the public on matters concerning nuclear power.  Perhaps if nuclear power gained wider support due to increased understanding of its properties, the Untied States could build more nuclear reactors and produce more clean energy.  One way to accomplish this would be to teach students about nuclear reactors in middle and high school science classes.

Nuclear energy has the potential to be a fantastic source of power for the United States, but concerns about its safety are impeding its usage.  Nuclear energy is both clean and safe.  Other countries recognize the potential the nuclear power has the change the patter of energy usage.  China plans to increase their production of nuclear power by 200% by 2030 according to The Economist.  It is important for the United States to realize what other countries already have, nuclear energy is both clean and safe and is part of the solution to the world’s energy problems.