A virus? Really?
Wired’s Danger Room has learned that a computer virus has infected the United States’ Predator and Reaper drones. The virus is a keylogger that keeps track of every pilots’ keystroke as they perform missions over Afghanistan and other locations…
Continue reading… “US Drone Fleet infected with a virus”
Netherlands has a new outlook on alcohol.
Starting December 1st, the Netherlands will be giving their drunk drivers a holiday gift. Drivers who have been pulled over with high blood alcohol content will be given “alcolocks” to install into their cars. The device acts as a breathalyzer that can keep an engine turned off…
Continue reading… “Dutch mandates alcolocks”
Could Alzheimer’s be transmissible?
The brain damage that characterizes Alzheimer’s disease may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob, according to newly published research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
September 24th through October 1st is Banned Books Week.
Talk about an easy subject to research! It might have been easier to write up a “books that have never been banned anywhere” list. The banning of books seems so ridiculous, simplistic, and stupid to most of us. But man, in all his Jeckyll and Hyde glory, will all-too-often, when trying to solve a problem, come up with a solution much worse. This is “the 29th annual Banned Books Week” The week is used to condemn censorship and “thought police.”
O.K., let’s take a look at a brief (in the scheme of these things) list of books that have been (ironically) banned here in the U.S….
Continue reading… “12 Books that have (ironically) been banned in the U.S.”
Is Wi-Fi the new spy eye?
Neal Patwari of the University of Utah discovered that breathing affects Wi-Fi signal strength. Chest expansion during a breath bends the wireless signals and they lose some power. This slight drop can be measured and used to calculate your breathing rate.
Measuring someone’s breathing rate is helpful, but the use of this technology as a spy tool is where things get interesting…
Continue reading… “Wi-Fi signals may be used to track your movement inside your house”
Get a hold on your privacy with Facebook Disconnect.
If you want to use Facebook, but don’t want Facebook’s tendrils extending all over the internet and following your account, you’ll want this. A product called Facebook Disconnect completely blocks the social network’s ability to track your account around the web…
Continue reading… “How to stop Facebook from tracking you across the Internet”
Another reason the patent system is so difficult.
Last month, Google stepped up to defend Android coders against notorious patent troll Lodsys. Apple fought the company a few months earlier on behalf of iOS developers. Patent reform is a hot topic right now, especially after President Obama just signed legislation that means the U.S. is shifting to a “first to file” (over “first to invent”) system. This won’t help much with the patent troll situation, which Boston University researchers James Bessen and Mike Meurer say have cost publicly-traded defendants $500 billion since 1990…
Continue reading… “Patent Trolls costing an astronomical $500 Billion”
A gun is a gun is it not?
There’s an interesting back-and-forth going on at Thingiverse, a site founded by Makerbot to share 3D projects. Two designers have made two parts for the AR-15 rifle platform. The first part is a standard rifle magazine complete with spring but the second part is AR-15 lower receiver.
Why are these parts important? Well, the magazine is just on the edge of Thinigverse’s implied (but not concrete) “no weapons” philosophy but the lower receiver is something else entirely. It is the only part of the AR-15 that you need a license to buy. Here’s what the creator, KingLudd, has to say about it…
Continue reading… “Is printing a gun the same as buying a gun?”
Something totally new.
Scientists at the University of Glasgow say they have taken their first tentative steps towards creating ‘life’ from inorganic chemicals potentially defining the new area of ‘inorganic biology’.
Professor Lee Cronin, Gardiner Chair of Chemistry in the College of Science and Engineering, and his team have demonstrated a new way of making inorganic-chemical-cells or iCHELLs…
Continue reading… “Scientists take first step towards creating ‘Inorganic Life’”
Patents are a tricky thing these days.
Eric Schmidt, Google’s Executive Chairman and former CEO, took the stage at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco today to talk about a host of topics, including the success of Google Apps, his feelings about Steve Jobs, Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola, with the conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff even ranging into Schmidt’s thoughts on the current landscape facing the U.S. patent market.
The executive chairman began by addressing the purchase of Nortel Networks’ roster of patents by a group of buyers that included some of Google’s rivals, including Microsoft and Apple. TechCruncher MG Siegler covered the back-and-forth between Google and Microsoft that unfolded in regard to the supposition that the group that bought the Nortel patents was effectively attempting to cut the legs out from underneath Android…
Continue reading… “Google Chairman Eric Schmidt weighs in on patent issues: They’re ‘Terrible’”
Confusion arises in the city for songbirds.
Noise pollution from humans is guilty of many things — causing whales to lose their way, killing giant squid, leading baby fish away from good habitat, and generally stressing out animals. But while we know noise pollution in the oceans is causing whales to yell their songs, scientists have only just discovered that it is also causing birds to change their tune — and it seems to lead to a problem with fidelity and mate selection.
Researchers have discovered that noise from roads and highways has caused some birds, including the Great Tit to change their songs to a higher pitch so that they can be heard over the din. However, the change makes them less attractive to mates…
Continue reading… “Noise pollution causing songbirds to cheat on each other”
What a non-surprise.
Many of us sounded the alarm as soon as we learned of BP’s plans to dump huge quantities of the chemical dispersant Corexit into the Gulf in an attempt to break up the oil slick. Experts were concerned, seeing as how the chemical had never been used in such quantities before, nor in such a manner — until the federal government made them stop, BP was blasting the stuff directly into the source, seeking to disperse the oil before it even reached the surface.
Well, now Earth Justice has completed a report on the chemicals that were used in the different blends of dispersant, and it appears that at least some of those fears were well-founded…
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.