The United States' Air Farce

On Thursday, March 27, at Malmstrom Air Force base, nine officers were fired for cheating on a monthly proficiency test. This was no small, unimportant test either, it was testing the officers on "the launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles"(NY Times Article). When dealing with ballistic missiles, it is crucial to operate it correctly, as the missile is intended to hit multiple targets. The officers at Malmstrom are considered 21st century minute men, and must be prepared at all times for to operate, especially with little notice. Cheating on this test not only ended their careers, but put the lives of innocent Americans at risk. These men took an oath to protect their country, and completely disregarded it by cheating.

What comes as even more of a surprise is that their Commander, Col. Robert Stanley, knew about the cheating, and did not stop it. Although only nine men were fired as of now, 82 of Stanley's other officers are under investigation. Whether we can say if it was he who provided answers, it is unclear. Stanley has been relieved from his duty. Although we do not know who is behind the cheating, we do know how they cheated.

Answers to these monthly tests were sent through text messages to the cheating officers. As I mentioned in my most recent blog, smart phones may be making us dumber. This is yet another example of how technology can be seen as evil and unhelpful. More and more information will inevitably come out in the near future, but this is already being seen as the "largest number of dismissals in the history of the ICBM force""(NY Times Article).

2048

Any New Trier student or teacher would recognize the 4x4 box shown to the left. These boxes are the staple of the newest smash iPhone game 2048. The goal of the game is to match like numbers to create bigger numbers using addition. The game is finished when you add two 1024 boxes together, to make a 2048 box. The game is lost when you fill up the board with numbers, but no viable moves are available.

Unlike the other popular iPhone games this year (including but not limited to Dear Hunter, Flappy Bird, and Candy Crush) this game uses mathematics and strategy. Many people, like author Amanda Rush, believe that the over-dependence on our smart phones is actually dumbing us down. With so many people completely reliant on their smart phones, they have much less use for their brain. The rest of her article can be found here.

Are these smart phones turning us into dumb people? Will a time come when one must choose between their own brain and Siri? Maybe Gabriele Cirulli, the inventor of the game made it to stop this craze, and make smart phones make people smarter. The 19 year-old Italian web designer finally did the impossible: made kids addicted to math. One can only hope there are more games like 2048 in our future, and less like Flappy bird.

Why Retro?

Today, while scrounging around my dads office waiting for him to finish a meeting, I found an old Loony Tunes mint container. I was immediately attracted to it. I picked it up and studied it, only to become even more amused by its simpleness. How could a cheap metal box with a few cartoon characters on it be so interesting to a 17 year-old? The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why people like old things so much.

I've never realized how strange the attraction to retro things are. People are gravitated to things they played with as kids, or that their parents and grand-parents did/wore, for a reason nobody knows. One explanation is the power of nostalgia. Maybe when I saw the box, my memories of watching Saturday morning cartoons ignited, and I was brought back to a simpler time. A time when my biggest worry was what was for desert that night.

Nostalgia may the explanation for the box, but not for the phenomenon of wearing retro clothes. Even the richest of celebrities, like the rapper Maclemore (right), love old things. His top song this year was even a ballad of love for retro items: entitled thrift shop. One would expect that a man worth over 15 million dollars would splurge and buy new clothes, yet he is often seen dressing like the photo below. As an fexaminer.com article states, Maclemore's "home is decorated with thrift store taxidermy, furniture and lamps. In his closets hang fringe jackets and outerwear of purple, red and blue leather". This multi millionaire hates spending "50 dollars on a tee-shirt" as the thrift shop lyrics tell us. 

I don't have a good reason for this crave for the past, but I hope I see people wearing Vineyard Vines sweaters and salmon colored dress pants in 30 years!

Between Two Ferns- Obama

For those of you that have not seen the Between Two Ferns with Barack Obama, go watch it. Now. 

In this hilarious video, Obama and comedic star Zach Galifianakis, poke fun at each other in a mock interview through Funnyordie.com. Zach brings up Obama's birth certificate scandal, and lackluster basketball game. Barack jabs right back at Zach, torching the Hangover 3 and even making a few fat-jokes. After the back-and-forth burn battle, Obama begins to discuss what he obviously came there to plug: Obamacare. 

Obama began talking about the site, (also called Healcare.gov) and stated that the site is now working 
better than ever. Keeping the mood light, Zach continued to make jokes periodically, like asking Obama why he asked the creator of the Zoon to design the website. He finished the plug by telling the viewers that they only have a couple more weeks to sign up. 

While many people (including myself), found this hysterical, others were appalled. Conservative political commentator Bill O-Reilly said that the interview was a farce, and that "Abe Lincoln would not have done it". ABC's Jim Avila said the interview damages the "dignity of the office". MSNBC's Rachel Maddow disagreed with Avila by saying past presidents such as Reagan, Bush, Eisenhower and Nixon have all appeared on comedy shows in the past. 

The controversy is brewing between these two sides, but one thing is for certain: the video was effective. Healthcare.gov has seen a 40% increase in viewership since the video released on the 11th. This is huge for Obama, who says his reasoning behind the video was to reach the 18-30 year-old demographic. Who would've thought that Zach Galifianakis calling Barack Obama a "nerd" would bring in so much publicity?