All-seeing eye.

31 08 2007

There is no wonder that one day we will have found that each person’s entire life from birth to death could be recorded by a network of intelligent sensors, according to a senior scientist.

Already we live in a world surrounded by sensors and recording devices, said Professor Sadler, director of the Trusted Systems Lab at Hewlett Packard. By 2057, there could be at least 1m devices for every UK resident. “Maybe the first time you know you are pregnant is when a targeted piece of advertising comes through on your computer screen offering you some baby clothes because somehow the smart toilet, or some other aspect of your environment, leaked that information,” he said. A 2002 study calculated there were around 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK, one for every 14 people. Professor Sadler said: “The average Londoner may be viewed as many as 300 times a day.” The growth in the number of devices would continue to grow, he predicted. “If you go forward 50 years, you are probably talking about one million forms of sensors per person in the UK,” he said. This was a conservative estimate, he said. “More aggressive” calculations suggest there could be 20m sensors per person.
Professor Sadler’s predictions were shared by Oliver Sparrow, a scenario planner who has advised the UK government and international organizations.

It looks like inevitability and it can’t be helped. One can only set hopes upon strong articles of law that could some correct the situation, what else?





My secret hands.

26 08 2007

In 2005 the grope of German scientists from Essen University observed 40 volunteers both men and woman found out the natural phenomenon of interdependency between ability of in finding one’s bearings on the ground and the amount of testosterone in the blood that had gotten in mother’s belly yet.

It’s interesting that in outward appearance such ability show it’s worth in difference in lengthy human’s fingers - the shorter the index finger relative to the ring finger, the higher the amount of prenatal testosterone and carbon trading. Scientists have known for that the finger-length ratio differs between men and women. The new study found such a fetus is more likely to be a physically aggressive adult, according to Peter Hurd and his graduate student Allison Bailey. Hurd says that he first thought the idea was “a pile of hooey,” but he changed his mind when he saw the data, which is published in the March issue of the journal Biological Psychology. “More than anything, I think the findings reinforce and underline that a large part of our personalities and our traits are determined while we’re still in the womb,” Hurd said. The connection was found only with physically aggressive behavior, not with verbal aggression or other forms of hostility. Another study by Hurd, to be published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, find that men with more feminine finger ratios are more prone to depression.
“Finger lengths explain about 5 percent of the variation in these personality measures, so research like this won’t allow you to draw conclusions about specific people. For example, you wouldn’t want to screen people for certain jobs based on their finger lengths,” Hurd said. “But finger length can you tell you a little bit about where personality comes from, and that’s what we are continuing to explore.”





Hurricane Dean

20 08 2007

NACA reports that at 06:56 CDT, shuttle Endeavour undocked from ISS, officially ending the joint operations phase of STS-118.

It was a successful mission from the ISS standpoint.
The $11 million, 11′x14′x15′ S5 truss segment was installed on the ISS main truss.
[EVA] Replacement of an ISS gyroscope.
4 EVAs performed.
A 7500 lb external stowage platform was installed on the ISS main truss.
~2 tons of cargo (food, clothing, and hardware) was transferred from Endeavour to ISS.

Hurricane Dean is now tracking well south of Houston, and barely going to touch TX. So its unlikely MCC-Houston will have to evacuate. That’s good news.

Attached some photos of Hurricane Dean, taken by the ISS crew. To give you an idea of the size of Dean, its approximately 650 miles across. For reference, the storm would almost completely cover the states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.