Category: featured

Detroit Area Transit Agencies Consider Universal Fare System

Nowadays, more than 50% of mobile device users identify their phone as their primary Internet device, and why shouldn’t they? Smartphones and tablets can do just about anything, and depending on the results of a study by the Regional Transportation Authority of Southeast Michigan, Detroiters may be able to use them to pay their bus fare.

The RTA of Southeast Michigan — which the Detroit People Mover, the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, DDOT, and SMART all fall under — is conducting a study that may transform how the four transit agencies collect fares. In other words, it’s looking for a universal fare card, of sorts.

Although some of the study’s recommendations can be quickly implemented, others could take years to roll out. These more complicated measures that may be implemented include the ability to pay transit fare with a credit card or mobile device. One of the measures that can be implemented more quickly is a single plastic card that could act as a universal way to pay fare, allowing riders to easily pay for transportation with any of the four agencies.

Cornelius Henry, the transportation specialist with the People Mover who is leading the study, said the advantages of a universal fare are obvious. A system that doesn’t force people to find the right change, or remember which of their fare cards needs to be loaded is far more attractive and definitely more usable. Consequently, it will increase ridership.

With increased ridership comes other benefits. Every year, 37 million metric tons of carbon emissions and 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline are saved due to use of public transportation in the United States. With more people riding, more resources will be conserved.

The question now it seems is not whether or not such a system is beneficial, but rather if it will happen, which industry experts believe will.

“It’s going to happen,” said DDOT Director Dan Dirks. “It’s happening all over the country to be honest.”

May 22, 2015
SW Detroit Building’s 3rd Fire in 6 Months “Suspicious,” Fire Authorities Say

Officials are labeling an apartment fire that occurred last weekend in Southwest Detroit as “suspicious,” but investigators have yet to determine the cause.

No injuries were reported from the fire, according to Detroit Fire Chief Dale Bradley — apparently the unit in which the fire started was vacant — but the building’s other residents were forced to race to safety.

“Me and my kids were sleeping and I heard a loud noise, and I’m scared,” Katie Reeves, one of the residents who escaped the fire, told ClickOnDetroit.com. “My door is metal, so I looked through the peephole thing and there was smoke, so I looked out and the whole house was burning.”

Detroit firefighters were called to the 8300 block of Rathbone Street at 4:11 a.m. (earlier reports had indicated they arrived around 3:30 a.m., but that information has been updated). They were able to extinguish the blaze and the tenants have now been allowed back into the building.

But this is the third time in the past six months that firefighters have responded to the same building, and the fires keep starting in the same apartment.

The best way for residents in multi-unit buildings to protect themselves from fires is to ensure that they have working smoke detectors, Detroit fire officials have said on multiple occasions. Fire sprinklers, which are required in some types of buildings, can also be an important safety feature and can reduce damage from fires once they start.

It’s vitally important that all residents review emergency response guidelines, as well as educate themselves on fire prevention techniques to use in and around the home. That’s a particularly good idea heading into the holiday weekend and grilling season in general (about 63% of the U.S. population grills monthly), as U.S. fire departments deal with over 8,000 fires each year caused by grills or barbecues.

May 21, 2015
Michigan Tech Researchers Use 3-D Printers To Create Synthetic Nerve Tissue

In just one year, from 2012 to 2013, there were an estimated two million soft tissue fillers administered to patients in the United States. Most of these fillers were used for cosmetic reasons — to fill in scars and to help even skin tone.

But researchers from the Michigan Technological University have begun experimenting with tissue fillers in a new way that might just make it possible for patients with spinal injuries to regain their sense of touch — and it’s happening with a simple 3-D printer.

According to the university’s website, the team of researchers came together under the direction of Tolou Shokuhfar, as assistant professor at Michigan Tech and the director of the school’s In-Situ Nonmedicine and Nanoelectronics Laboratory. Under her guidance, the researchers have begun using 3-D printers to create synthesized nerve tissue, which will hopefully assist in nerve cell regeneration when a patient has a serious spinal cord injury.

Perhaps researchers have not been using 3-D printers in the medical industry for long, but it’s already clear that there’s a need for inexpensive, high-quality, and custom-designed prosthetics.

Already, developers and surgeons have created 3-D implants made of biomaterial, which can expand and change shape to fit the patient as he or she grows.

Shokuhfar’s team used the same starting point — biomaterial — but instead of using the printed devices as mere prosthetics that take the place of missing bones or muscles, they have aimed to create actual tissues with properties that encourage new cells to grow.

The synthetic tissue isn’t exactly “living,” and it’s created out of a syrupy polymer material that Shokuhfar’s team has to make in the lab. These cellulose nanocrystals are then printed out through a syringe attached to the printer, making thin layers of tissue.

The process is still in its earliest stages and, as 3dprint.com and Med City News have both noted, there are no regulations on the procedure just yet. It could be a decade — maybe even two — until the procedure is actually used on real patients, but it’s clear that Michigan Tech is already the leader in this revolutionary and life-changing technology.

May 21, 2015
ISIS Claims of Recruiters in Michigan May Be False, But the Group’s Social Media Presence Is Still A Major Concern

Just a few days ago, an anti-Muslim attack in Garland, Texas quickly made media headlines, first because the attack was aimed at participants of a “Draw a Cartoon of Muhammad” contest; second because it didn’t take long for ISIS to claim responsibility for the deadly shooting.

So it wasn’t surprising when U.S. intelligence officials were very serious about investigating claims, made by ISIS members via social media messages, that the group has 71 soldiers stationed throughout 15 states in the U.S.

Michigan residents didn’t take the warning lightly either, since Michigan is reportedly one of the 15 states housing ISIS members who are tasked with finding new recruits.

By now, Americans are well aware that ISIS has been using social media to generate support and recruit new fighters — and wives for fighters — from across the globe. For months now, terrorism experts and government officials have stated that the U.S. government is falling behind the Islamic State in terms of cybersecurity.

As much as the government likes to spy on other high-profile world leaders and even its own citizens, one would think that the CIA would be thrilled at the prospect of tracking down ISIS strongholds and leaders through virtual footprints left on social media.

However, as Fox News noted back in March, ISIS has found a safe place on multiple social media platforms where it can promote its message of terrorism with very few repercussions.

As Hometown Life noted in a recent article, the fact that ISIS members can promote their messages of violence and oppression through social media could be even more dangerous than the possibility of ISIS members living in the U.S. (Which seems to be a false claim anyway, at the moment.)

The way that ISIS leaders use social media for advertising purposes is very different from how 84% of B2B marketers and nearly 100% of B2C marketers use Twitter, Instragram, and Facebook. In many cases, ISIS members post graphic photos and controversial messages knowing that the websites will remove the content — but it doesn’t matter if the content is removed, because news stations will pick up these stories and continue to spread the messages.

Another concern that Michigan lawmakers have noted, however, is that Michigan — particularly the Metro Detroit area — has a high population of residents with Middle Eastern backgrounds.

Racial and ethnic tensions are high in the Detroit area at the moment, causing many local leaders to step forward and emphasize that although ISIS’s threat should be taken seriously, residents must be careful not to profile an entire — and essential — community in the city.

May 15, 2015

Quirky Weather Effect Shows Upside-Down Chicago Skyline Over Lake Michigan


Many people of all ages go camping at Warren Dunes State Park on the shores of Lake Michigan to get some much-needed physical activity — which can even benefit those who don’t begin exercising until age 70 to 84. For two metro Detroit residents, however, their April camping trip to Warren Dunes took a bizarre and seemingly supernatural turn. According to the Detroit Free Press, Joshua Super and his girlfriend, Shalee Blackmer, of Orchard Lake Village, noticed a strange sight when they went to take a photo of the sunset over the lake. They saw a distorted collection of shapes and columns that appeared to hover over the horizon. Upon a closer look, they realized they were looking at an upside-down Chicago skyline. “I wouldn’t call myself a believer in aliens, but I truly thought it was something like that,” said Super, 22. At about 60 miles away, Chicago normally can’t be seen from the opposite side of Lake Michigan — so how can its skyscrapers appear in the sky this way? As it turns out, Super and Blackmer saw a mirage, according to Andrew T. Young, a San Diego State University astronomer and a leading expert on mirages. This particular mirage was classified as a superior mirage, which takes place when a large and well-defined area of warm air sits over a layer of colder air and distorts light rays from the atmosphere. “A thermal inversion forms over the lake, bending the line of sight from the camera to Chicago back down, and producing the inverted image, which is typical of mirages,” Young said. “Normally, Chicago is hidden by the curvature of the Earth, so that it lies below the lake horizon. One pill of the drug contains 25, 50 or 100 mg of Sildenafil. Cialis https://medimagery.com/buy-cialis-online-generic-cialis-tadalafil/ is intended for the treatment of men with erectile dysfunction, which is also called impotence. Here, the optical ray curvature is stronger than the curvature of the lake surface, and that brings the city’s buildings into view.” At this time of the year, when the Great Lakes are still cold but the air has begun to warm up, superior mirages aren’t an uncommon occurrence. It’s important to distinguish mirages from illusions, as the two terms aren’t interchangeable. In a mirage, the atmosphere acts as a lens to reflect an image. Super’s photo of the mirage has garnered almost 1.5 million views on Reddit alone since he posted it online, the Chicago Tribune reported. “I feel like I’ve known about Michigan and its different weather phenomena all my life, but I was completely blindsided by this,” he said.

Many people of all ages go camping at Warren Dunes State Park on the shores of Lake Michigan to get some much-needed physical activity — which can even benefit those who don’t begin exercising until age 70 to 84.

For two metro Detroit residents, however, their April camping trip to Warren Dunes took a bizarre and seemingly supernatural turn.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Joshua Super and his girlfriend, Shalee Blackmer, of Orchard Lake Village, noticed a strange sight when they went to take a photo of the sunset over the lake. They saw a distorted collection of shapes and columns that appeared to hover over the horizon.

Upon a closer look, they realized they were looking at an upside-down Chicago skyline.

“I wouldn’t call myself a believer in aliens, but I truly thought it was something like that,” said Super, 22.

At about 60 miles away, Chicago normally can’t be seen from the opposite side of Lake Michigan — so how can its skyscrapers appear in the sky this way?

As it turns out, Super and Blackmer saw a mirage, according to Andrew T. Young, a San Diego State University astronomer and a leading expert on mirages. This particular mirage was classified as a superior mirage, which takes place when a large and well-defined area of warm air sits over a layer of colder air and distorts light rays from the atmosphere.

“A thermal inversion forms over the lake, bending the line of sight from the camera to Chicago back down, and producing the inverted image, which is typical of mirages,” Young said. “Normally, Chicago is hidden by the curvature of the Earth, so that it lies below the lake horizon. One pill of the drug contains 25, 50 or 100 mg of Sildenafil. Cialis https://medimagery.com/buy-cialis-online-generic-cialis-tadalafil/ is intended for the treatment of men with erectile dysfunction, which is also called impotence. Here, the optical ray curvature is stronger than the curvature of the lake surface, and that brings the city’s buildings into view.”

At this time of the year, when the Great Lakes are still cold but the air has begun to warm up, superior mirages aren’t an uncommon occurrence.

It’s important to distinguish mirages from illusions, as the two terms aren’t interchangeable. In a mirage, the atmosphere acts as a lens to reflect an image.

Super’s photo of the mirage has garnered almost 1.5 million views on Reddit alone since he posted it online, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“I feel like I’ve known about Michigan and its different weather phenomena all my life, but I was completely blindsided by this,” he said.

May 11, 2015

Category: featured

Detroit Area Transit Agencies Consider Universal Fare System

SW Detroit Building’s 3rd Fire in 6 Months “Suspicious,” Fire Authorities Say

Michigan Tech Researchers Use 3-D Printers To Create Synthetic Nerve Tissue

ISIS Claims of Recruiters in Michigan May Be False, But the Group’s Social Media Presence Is Still A Major Concern

Quirky Weather Effect Shows Upside-Down Chicago Skyline Over Lake Michigan