Having travelled to quite a few places all over the world, I have always been intrigued by different accents. Once in a while I come across people with a certain accent and say to myself, “If I had that accent, I would probably never stop talking.” Until now, this is the most I had ever really thought about accents. 

         Now, that I have the chance to research and write about anything I please it’s no surprise that the topic I want to extend my knowledge on is- accents.

         In simple words, an accent is just basically the way we speak. The language could be the same but the way in which we pronounce certain words or even individual letters could vary a lot and therefore make a sentence sound completely different.

         In an article produced by the Linguistic Society Of America titled, “Why do some people have an accent?” it rightly states, “You notice it (an accent) because it’s different from the way you speak. In reality, everybody has an accent – in somebody else’s opinion”

         According to an article titled The Science of Accents, it’s not just humans that have different accents, “Goats say bahhhh with different accents, depending on where they live. Gibbons sing different songs, depending on which groups they’re raised in. There are even researchers who specialize in pigeon accents.”

         Sometimes we don’t really hear the difference in accents or realize how many different accents there are out there. This Youtube video by Amy Walker shows 21 different accents in 2 minutes and I thought it would help in seeing how different people all over the world speak so uniquely!

         It’s not only internationally that people have different accents, in America itself there are so many different regional accents, when an accent is regional it is known as a dialect. The picture below helps us see the varying dialects in America.

 After waiting days on end for the new iOS7, when it did finally come out, I cancelled all my plans for the day and decide to discover it completely. One of the most fascinating features I discovered was the Parallax feature. It was cool to look at, but what really got me wondering was the science behind it. 

Parallax in simple words is when an object looks to be in a new direction every time it’s seen from a new position or angle of view. The icons on the new iPhone iOS are in this form. This technology adds depth to the icons that we perceive on the home screen. 

This principle is usually used by scientists and astronomers to measure the distance to the moon, sun and other stars and planets. Almost every Apple product made today consists of a MEMS Gyroscope inside it. When exposed to an electronic charge, the MEMS Gyroscope vibrates. 

When the phone is rotated it resists the change in it’s original position due to Newton’s First Law Of Motion. The phone is then able to determine the speed and the position it is being rotated to. Further more to increase the accuracy of it’s ability to tell its current location it teams up with a few accelerometers.

According to macworld.com, “Tiny sensors inside the iPhone’s hardware allow iOS to tell when you rotate and move the device in any direction. Coupled with an educated guess about where you tend to keep your phone during use, this makes the parallax illusion possible.”

I had to blog about this technology as I think many people might not even notice it, and just take it for granted thinking the vision is just better and it’s different without realizing what exactly it is. They might not notice that it’s a whole principle that’s been used and Apple has given a lot of attention to detail in their new iOS.

In conclusion, I love this new way of seeing the icons and displays on my phone, the only thing that makes me a little unsure about this technology used in phones is that it’s such a complex feature and I think it might drain my phone a lot faster than usual, what do you think?

I guess time will tell and until then I’m going to enjoy this iOS thoroughly! Apple does it again J

After several companies are heading toward the wearable technology way, with the most recent and talked about Google Glass, several other companies seem to be joining the bandwagon.

Being an avid Apple fan, I had to look at what Apple calls “The iWatch.”

This product is still not released but like all the other Apple products is being talked about by almost anyone who claims to be an Apple fan.

Johnston and Murphy are said to be the “dream team” behind the iWatch according to an article on The Business Insider. Apple hasn’t officially said or released a Keynote like they usually do for all their products, but according to The Guardian, “Apple could release the iWatch at the next Apple device event, rumoured to be within the next month, for a possible refresh of the iPad models.”

In simple words the iWatch is a watch that displays a short summary of the contents on your iphone, ipad or maybe even mac. You can answer calls and also track your activity almost like Nike’s Fuel Band and The UP band.

In conclusion, I am very excited since it’s an Apple product and I’m always very excited to see what they come out with, but just like everything in science this is all uncertain and could change close to the actual release date or when Apple gives out an official word. Until then I just helped hype their next product! 🙂

Being brought up under the notion that all dogs are completely colorblind, I decided to blog and research about this topic a little more. 

On reading further I learnt that dogs are in fact colorblind, just not to the degree I thought they were. I always thought dogs could only see in black and white, but it turns out this isn’t the case. Dogs can definitely see more than black and white, it’s just that their color vision isn’t able to make them see colors as bright and vividly as we do. They also don’t see as many colors as our eyes are capable of seeing.

To make this explanation clearer, I found this image on psychologytoday.com

Now comparing this to a human’s vision, we both primarily work on the same concept with a little advantage. The cells used to see color are also known as- cones. Cones are also known as the receptors that help us see color more efficiently.

According to The Pet Health Network article “Are dogs really color blind” it explains this in further detail by telling us, “Dogs only have two types of cones, so they see orange, yellow, and green as yellow. Blue-green is seen as white and red looks as though it is brownish-black. While they can see blue, they can’t distinguish shades, especially as the color blue gets darker.”

I’m glad I missed my dog- Cookie, before I began to write this blog and the true inspiration behind this post came from me wondering if she knows that her favorite bone is green in color? She unfortunately doesn’t 🙁 but she can definitely see a lot more color than I thought she could! I always knew she was a smart cookie!

     Being diagnosed with diabetes right before my 20th birthday seemed like it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. It can seem like the end of the world. It hits you the most when you realize that it’s something you can’t change and you have to live with. When you’re done being upset and angry to the circumstances, you see that you’re not the only one, according to statistics found on the American Diabetes Association’s website, there are 25.8 million people in America alone fighting the same battle with you, everyday.  

 “Diabetes is an incurable disease that affects the body’s ability to produce or respond properly to insulin,” According the American Diabetes Association website, but not according to the Newcastle diet.

The diet got its name after it was formulated, after research carried out by a team from UK’s famous- Newcastle University.

            Also called “The starvation diet,” by many, it’s now becoming a big deal in the UK. In simple words it is a low calorie diet said to reverse diabetes over the period of 8 weeks. 

            Diabetes runs in my family. I still remember the morning my mother called to tell me about this diet, I was ecstatic. I don’t think anyone realizes how fortunate they are until they have to deal with something out of the ordinary. I hate waking up early to take my medications, taking time out to go to the gym is tough between work and class but I know it’s something I have to do. While you’re out with your friends you can’t always order what you want. And then there’s everyone’s best friend that becomes your enemy and you can’t do anything about it- chocolate and just sugar in general. 

             My mother sent me the Youtube link of the diet and then asked to further research it and email the professor for further questions and assistance if I needed. 

        Professor Roy Taylor (one of the professors working on the study) explains the diet in simple words, he says, “It’s now clear that type 2 diabetes is caused by abnormal fat storage. If you are eating more than you burn, then the excess is stored in the liver and pancreas as fat. On this diet the body is suddenly in negative calorie balance, so it calls on its own reserves of fat. The fat used first is that around the pancreas and liver. This means the pancreas is given a chance to start working again,” on everydiet.org

    During the diet you are allowed a totally daily intake of 600 calories. These calories can be in the form of liquid diet drinks, protein shakes, protein bars and non-starchy vegetables. You are asked to follow a strict vegan diet, ie no animal or animal products, bread, rice, pasta, starchy vegetables like potato and sweet potato, legumes, fruit, alcohol and salt.

 Pros and cons of the diet-

PROS-                                               

-It could be the first cure ever known for Diabetes if it actually works and help millions of people.

CONS-

-Very tough to follow, 600 calories is starvation and therefore can be criticized to be unhealthy.

-It is tested on very few people. (The study is based on 11 people that participated in the study)

-If it actually works, why is it not a big deal yet? Why is it still only famous in the UK if it’s actually a breakthrough discovery? 

            I did try the diet but couldn’t get myself to go past 2 weeks, after that the hunger pangs get unbearable. I also didn’t trust it 100% because the study was only carried out on 11 people. Though the explanation Dr. Roy Taylor gives is very simple and makes a lot of sense to me and because of my desperation to get rid of my diabetes, I’m going to give it another shot. Wish me luck! J