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China uses drones to catch cheaters on college access exams
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The world's toughest exam has driven Chinese students to extremes, including suicide, but cheating will be a little tougher if a plan in Henan province, 400 miles south of Beijing, pans out.

The province plans to use drones, Digital Trends reports, not to look over students' shoulders, but to listen in for radio traffic between students taking exams and accomplices on the outside.

The National College Entrance Exam, known as the gaokao, is a make-or-break exam for nearly 10 million Chinese students each year.

Efforts to circumvent the exam have grown sophisticated. As Kotaku reported last year, some students have taken to embedding tiny cameras on their eyeglasses, which send the test images outside, so that answers can be relayed to them through an earpiece.

High-stakes testing, in which students or teachers find their careers or salaries on the line, have spawned a variety of cheating scandals here in the U.S. as well. This spring saw the conviction of nine educators in Atlanta who had systematically fudged test scores to bump their students across the finish line.

The Washington Post noted in April that the scandal "highlights what critics of standardized testing argue is part of the downside of relying on the test results to evaluate teachers, principals and schools: Pressure to perform can lead people to cross the line when their jobs or merit pay are at stake."

The Atlanta teachers used a No. 2 pencil and an eraser, but as China has found, cheating gets more sophisticated in the era of social media and microtechnology. This spring Pearson, the giant testing mega-corporation, made waves when it used sophisticated monitoring of social media to keep students from sharing test questions.

The Pearson flap emerged in in March, the AP reported, when a New Jersey school administrator emailed colleagues that a testing company had contacted the district at 10 p.m. one night asking them to look into a breach.

It turned out the student had posted a complaint about a question, but had not revealed the question or shown an image of it. The fact that the company was monitoring social media so aggressively set off a lot of parents and educators, many of whom were already upset about the heavy hand of testing in the classroom.

Pearson and its allies defended the oversight, arguing that any breach of the test security in social media risked compromising the tests for students yet to take them.

But as Nick Morrison noted at Forbes, the technological challenges of securing standardized against 21st Century Technology might lead one to question the whole concept, rather than simply double down on intrusive prevention.

"In more analogue times," Morrison wrote, "the risk of students passing information about the test to those in another state was minimal. But in the days of Facebook and Twitter trying to stop test questions getting out is like trying to block a colander with your fingers. Its just not going to work."
Its toxic: New study says blue light from tech devices can speed up blindness
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A new study from the University of Toledo found that blue light from digital devices can transform molecules in your eyes retina into cell killers. - photo by Herb Scribner
It turns out checking Twitter or Facebook before bed is bad for your health.

A new study from the University of Toledo found that blue light from digital devices can transform molecules in your eyes retina into cell killers.

That process can lead to age-related macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of blindness in the United States, according to the researchs extract.

Blue light is a common issue for many modern Americans. Blue light is emitted from screens, most notably at night, causing sleep loss, eye strain and a number of other issues.

Dr. Ajith Karunarathne, assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said our constant exposure to blue light cant be blocked by the lens or cornea.

"It's no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye's retina. Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop, he said.

Macular degeneration is an incurable eye disease that often affects those in their 50s or 60s. It occurs after the death of photoreceptor cells in the retina. Those cells need retinal to sense light and help signal the brain.

The research team found blue light exposure created poisonous chemical molecules that killed photoreceptor cells

"It's toxic. If you shine blue light on retinal, the retinal kills photoreceptor cells as the signaling molecule on the membrane dissolves," said Kasun Ratnayake, a Ph.D. student researcher working in Karunarathne's cellular photo chemistry group. "Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye. When they're dead, they're dead for good."

However, the researchers found a molecule called alpha-tocopherol, which comes from Vitamin E, can help prevent cell death, according to Futurism.

The researchers plan to review how light from TVs, cellphones and tablet screens affect the eyes as well.

"If you look at the amount of light coming out of your cellphone, it's not great but it seems tolerable," said Dr. John Payton, visiting assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "Some cellphone companies are adding blue-light filters to the screens, and I think that is a good idea."

Indeed, Apple released a Night Shift mode two years ago to help quell blue lights strain on the eyes, according to The Verge. The screen will dim into a warmer, orange light that will cause less stress on the eyes.