Our After-Schooling Education

     Once we leave school pretty much our only education comes in two ways, through learning from our mistakes and what we see or read in the media.
     I don't wish to share my mistakes but, as an avid reader, I have recently learned a number of things in my reading, even though it is a higgeldy-piggledy mixture of trivia and not any lesson in one educative category, and I will share selected choices, in concise thumbnail bits, that intrigued me from that.

The Melon, innovated by Arye Barnehama, is a new headband that monitors your brain waves to help you stay focused. Sensors measure brain activity, then sync that data with your laptop  or mobile device via Bluetooth and alerts you if your mind is wandering. (Can't you just imagine entire classes of students in years to come all wearing these and becoming geniuses!)

Spritz, which co-founder Mark Maurer launched in Spring 2014 on the Samsung Galaxy S5 and
Gear2Smartwatch, is another new learning aid. With this device, which exploits something called the optimal recognition point - the area that the brain uses to process a word, users can digest text up to 1,000 words per minute (about five times average).

The Juno Jumper is a compact, iPhone-sized jump starter (for $100 from Junopower.com, cables sold seperately) that needs only an overnight charge to be use ready. For those of us who have occasionally had to jump-start cars with dead batteries this is neat.

Pensa is a free-to-use public streetside charging station featuring plug-ins for a variety of different mobile devices, topped by three electric-generating solar panels. The pilot program in New York and on college campuses has been sponsored by AT&T and Goal Zone, a solar device company.

The GPS Smartsole ($299) is a waterproof shoe sole with built-in GPS tracking chip that can instantly map the wearer anywhere in the world. It works with a variety of smart phones, computers and tablets. Sounds ideal for dementia sufferers, kids who wander and executives fearing kidnapping. The battery lasts five days and is easily recharged, like a cell phone.

The Zubie, costing $100, has a small "key" that plugs into the 16-pin diagnostics port hidden in your car's dashboard, syncing to a smart phone app that pinpoints the vehicle's location at all times, thereby defeating its theft. It also includes a gas price and mileage tracker, as well as a battery and engine monitor that sends alerts if either is malfunctioning. It also "tracks" how you drive (a headache saver for parents with teens drivers).

Alex Klein co-founded the Keno DIY (DoItYourself) Computer Kit (Keno.me $99) that is said to be "as intuitive as a Lego set" and will de-mystefy  the inner workings of our favorite gadgets. Once assembled, Keno syncs with a monitor or TV screen, and a very simple manual gets kids, of all ages, coding software.

Dentistry Today reports Kings College London is developing a technique that uses "electrically accelerated and enhanced remineralization...to heal teeth without drilling and filling cavities". The procedure uses a small electrical current to push the mineral to the tooth from the damaged site.

UCBerkeley, MIT and Microsoft researchers recently introduced a prototype that can make a digital screen correct a user's vision. A filter is clipped onto a phone, tablet or other device, and the user downloads software to input his or her individual prescription. The filter then interacts with the screen.

People blinded by the degenerative disease retinitis pigmentosa can now purchase the Argus II, a bionic eye that can be safely, surgically implanted and is paired with video camera-equipped glasses to help patients distinguish objects around them.

California-based VoiceVault gives business and consumers the option of attaching "vocal signatures" to documents by speaking into the receiver following a telephone prompt. Great for executives closing big deals, banking transactions and government "need-to-know" stuff.

Funomena, based in San Francisco, is part of an emerging "deep games" movement where players "win" by becoming more enlightened, empathetic people. A new crop of mostly small studios have released wildly inventive games that focus on narrative, aesthetics, and the exploration of intimate emotions rather than fast-paced action, competition and tricky game play.

Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, the company that promotes "share the ride" in cities, was riding a $40 million evaluation high when he promised to take 400,000 vehicles off the roads in Europe to fight traffic gridlock and over-the-top air pollution. Then Uber was ordered to  stop operations in South Carolina and Madrid and was even indicted in South Korea for providing "illegal" rides.

FINDING NEW NAMES FOR ROCK BANDS IS TOUGH

     There is such a proliferation of music groups that they are running out of names for new ones.

     That was the gist of a Cox News Service story by Scott Benarde back in 1992! It was sort of a scare that didn't materialize, rather like the U.S. Patent Office back sometime in the 1800s announcing the Patent Office would close because everything that could be invented had been. 

     There are no statistics that I know of, but just listing such musical group names shows that pretty much all the cool names with animals, colors, letter combinations, et al, have been used. Bands by '92 had already used up alphabet names from ABC to XYZ, including APB, ATC, BCH, BTO, CIA, DAD, DBX, DOA, DOC, EIEIO, EU, EMF, EPMD, ESP, INXS, FOC, FM, KGB, KLF, KMC, KMFDM, K-YZE, NWA, NRBQ, OTB, RTZ, TKA, TSOL, UTFO, UFO, ZTC and REO Speedwagon. If you remember but a handfull of them, don't fret. You're about average, along with me. Most of them didn't move our music to new heights.

     But those are only the start of our list. Look at the mess of numbers once used: One, 2 Deep, 2 In A Room, 2 Nu, 2 Live Crew, 2 Smooth MCs, 2 Bigg MC, 2 Nasty 4 Radio, Three Grand, 3 Merry Widows, 3 Mustaphas 3, 4 Way, 4-Sure, Take 6, 7 Seconds, After 7, Crazy 8's, 9 Ways to Sunday, ll, 13 Engines, 21 Guns, Catch 22, 24-7 Spyz, 29 Palms, 38 Special, Level 42, the 49ers, 54-40, Highway 101, 101 North, 220 Volt, 808 State, 1927, Oaktown-3-5-7, 10,000 Maniacs, and The Millions. Some crews combined letters and numbers, like B-52s, U2, UB40, L7, K9 Posse, and WWIII. 

     They all probably h;ad a reason for the names chosen, but I don't (can't) explain them. I just report them.

     And don't think we are done. Colors were used, but black seemed to be the favorite. Included were Black, Black Bambi, Black Box, Black Britain, Black Crowes, Blackfoot, and Black Velvet. The other colors are even harder to remember. I can't think of any still working.

     For some reason the term "Big" was used a lot: Big Audio Dynamite, Big Brother and Holding Company, Big Country, Big Car, Big Bam Boo, Big Bang Theory, Big Daddy Kane, Big Dipper, Big Dish, Big Pig, Big Drill Car, Big Shoulders, Big Wheel, Big Youth, Mr. Big, and Bigga.  "Ice" was also a favorite, judging from Icehouse, Ice-T, Ice Cube, Vanilla Ice, Ice MC, Ice Cream Tee, Icicle Works,  and Ice Capades. Tribe" too got considerable play with Tribe After Tribe, A Tribe Called Quest, Rhythm Tribe, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., Tribe, and Tribal Tech. 

     Names using Club, Gang, Posse, Boys, Crew and Def were close to overkill. And space doesn't permit even getting into place names (Boston, Chicago, etc) used. But names of living creatures offered a little welcome imagination, like White Lion and the Iguanas, along with some fish - An Emotional Fish, School of Fish, Fishbone, Kingfish and Phish.

     It got so newcomer outfits were using complete sentences to identify themselves. Maybe you will remember They Might Be Giants, We Are Going to Eat You, What Makes Donna Twirl?, They Eat Their Own, Pop Will Eat Itself, I See Why and I Don't Know. 

     Back to our original sentence. Seems we shouldn't have worried. It was soon discovered that the English language is infinite when it comes to music groups and their images they think describe themselves and sets them apart. In just this morning's entertainment pages I noticed several new group names all due over the weekend at a local Rendezvous in the Park showcase: Blue Funk Jailbreak, The Hoodoo Two, Yellow Dog Flats, An American Forest, Dawn of Life and Genius in Remission. On another page I found more: Chastity Belt, Smashclub, Blackwater Prophet, Youryoungbody, Childbirth, Bread and Circus, and Diazepam. And, like I said, I don't explain 'em, I'm just reportkng 'em.