News Brief

Future of Phones


The first cell phones ever used among civilians were about the size of small bricks. Today, we have smart phones that allow us to search information, listen to music, write documents, and store books. It seems that soon, the smart phone will not only do all of the above (in addition to making phone calls), but they will also be paper-thin and won't use power when idle. This new technology does away with the all-the-rage touch screens and functions on mere folds and bends of the thin circuitry layers between sheets of plastic. Said to be the antecedent of paper computers, this phone can be filed away like the paperwork we’re all drowning in and want to ignore. It can be slipped into your pocket like the spare change you won’t find until your next laundry day and unlike the bulge it creates in your back pocket, it begs to be stolen. Welcome, readers, to tomorrow’s phone.

-Sun Mei Liu

Article Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1383903/PaperPhone-The-smartphone-paper-shape-pocket.html

Image Source: http://www.latestcoolgadgets.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/paper-phone-1.jpg

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Most College Grads Move Back Home

Graduation is just around the corner for most high school and college seniors. For the latter, however, graduation isn’t as exciting as it once was. It used to be that graduation meant the first apartment and that entry level job. Unfortunately, with one of the lowest job markets in history there is a mass migration of most grads back home. Not only are there no jobs out there but most students are also plagued with thousands of dollars in debt. Most college students take out loans that average $50,000 to $100,000. Twentysomething Inc, which is a young adult consultant firm, estimated that about 85% of students are moving back with their parents because of the combination of no jobs and massive debt. The Census Labor Bureau has recently reported that half of all graduates younger than 25 are so strapped for work that they are even to part time jobs as servers and bartenders. While we don’t know what the future will hold we can only hope that the graduates of 2012 will have it a bit easier! (If the world hasn’t ended by then).

-Seth Nadler

Article Source: http://www.obamashitlist.com/tag/twentysomething/
Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Academic_procession.jpg

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Apocalypse Now?

Worried about finals, papers, or what you’ll do after you graduate? Fear not, because according to Family Radio and many others, the end of the world is just around the corner! The nonprofit evangelical Christian group based in Oakland, CA predicts that Judgment Day will be May 21, 2011 and encourages people to “save the date,” as seen in the above billboard and the hundreds like it across the country.

Anne-Marie Dorning reports that Family Radio selected this date after interpreting the Bible and calculating that it would be 7,000 years since Noah’s flood from the Old Testament. However, interestingly enough, Harold Camping, the president of the Family Radio network, and spokesperson Tom Evans, maintain that the group has “no use for organized religion.” Instead, their mission is to inform as many people as possible that doomsday is upon us.

Before you decide to drop everything and cower in an underground bunker, though, take comfort in the knowledge that Camping and Family Radio previously predicted the apocalypse would occur in 1994. Still not convinced that you’re not in danger? Leave a comment below and I’ll comment back to let you know when it’s safe to come out.

- Brigida Pirraglia

Article Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/judgment-day-21-2011-family-radio-network-proclaims/story?id=13565617

Image Source:
http://tonilynntrottier.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/billboard1.jpg?w=500&h=333