Augmented Google Earth Gets Real-Time People, Cars, Clouds | Popular Science

Researchers from Georgia Tech have devised methods to take real-time, real-world information and layer it onto Google Earth

They use live video feeds (sometimes from many angles) to find the position and motion of various objects, which they then combine with behavioral simulations to produce real-time animations for Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

They use motion capture data to help their animated humans move realistically, and were able to extrapolate cars’ motion throughout an entire stretch of road from just a few spotty camera angles

Now where would you happen to have loads of CCTVs you could use to spy on everybody realtime? I wonder…

via Augmented Google Earth Gets Real-Time People, Cars, Clouds | Popular Science.

UK wants your DNA

Lovely. If you’re an asylum seeker, the UK border patrols will want to take you DNA through your hair and nails to determine your nationality. Not only is this an insane breach of your person, there is also no scientific methodology being given out to show how exactly anything will be accomplished by the investigating company (whoever that is).

Slashdot Science Story | Scientists Decry “Horrifying” UK Border Test Plan.

Treemometers: A new scientific scandal

Turns out that much of the global warming science is based on data from Yamai in Siberia. The Yamai data has never been released, but it turns out that by looking at tree rings, people have been making assumptions about the temperature 2000 years ago. Apparently using tree rings is fraught with danger, as they aren’t very reliable. However, if you use enough trees you should be OK. It turns out that these people have been only using 12 hand picked trees that support the theses they wanted to prove!

Treemometers: A new scientific scandal • The Register.

Melting memory chips in mass production : Nature News

Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of a new kind of memory chip that stores information by melting and freezing tiny crystals. Known as phase-change memory (PCM)

Unlike conventional memory, which involves moving electrons around a chip, PCM data would literally be frozen in place, even when the machine is off. That means these devices could switch on nearly instantaneously.

via Melting memory chips in mass production : Nature News.

Children in the UK – WTF?

What the fuck is going on in the UK?! It turns out that under new legislation if you leave your kids at another person’s house to mind the child, that other person will have to be vetted by the government. If you want to take care of other people’s children (either as a babysitter or as a reciprocal favour) then you will need to be vetted by government. If you drive kids to sports activities… you guessed it… you need to be vetted!

Vetting not only entails an intrusion to your privacy, but you will receive training and need to make modifications to the area the child(ren) will be staying in.

Which basically means you have no right to decide how to bring up your own child!

Nation’s parents prepare to be vetted • The Register.

ILiad owners must hate DRM

This is one of the problems with DRM – because different parties are using different DRM systems (ePub and MobiPocket), e-book readers are forced to handle them with 2 different firmwares. IREX, builder of the iLiad e-book reader, only support MobiPocket if you have a Dutch iLiad e-book reader. There will be a firmware update to handle ePub, but not for the Dutch.

ILiad-bezitters door drm-vete in de kou | Webwereld.

Soviet Doomsday Machine

Apparently the USSR actually went and built a doomsday machine – something that would launch command missles which would transmit coordinates to other ICBMs in the event that the Soviet Union was destroyed. The system, called ‘Perimiter’ and known as ‘Dead Hand’ basically ran through some checks and then delegated launch authority to whoever it could reach.

The Soviets kept this a secret as their principle use for the system was not deterrence towards the US, but to calm hotheads in the Soviet military and to stop them from throwing up independant first strikes when the going got stressy, as the hotheads knew that if the USSR went down, they’d get their revenge.

Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine.

Russian Billionaire Installs Laser Shield on Floating Lair

Get this,

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has a rather curious new addition built in to his latest oversized yacht. The 557-foot boat Eclipse, the price tag of which has almost doubled since original plans were drawn to almost $1.2 billion, set sail this week with a slew of show-off features, from two helipads, two swimming pools and six-foot movie screens in all guest cabins, to a mini-submarine and missile-proof windows to combat piracy.

[….] Ambramovich has installed an anti-paparazzi “shield”. Lasers sweep the surroundings and when they detect a CCD, they fire a bolt of light right at the camera to obliterate any photograph.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/russian-billionaire-installs-anti-photo-shield-on-giant-yacht/