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How the TSA Plans On Inspecting Your Monkey 114

Posted by samzenpus from the I'm-gonna-need-to-check-your-monkey dept.
The uncertainty of what might happen to your service monkey at an airport security checkpoint won't keep you awake at night anymore, thanks to the TSA. They have issued an easy to follow list of how they will ensure your helper monkey won't go all Planet of the Apes on your flight. Some of the security techniques used to make sure your primate is not a terrorist include: "Security Officers will conduct a visual inspection on the service monkey and will coach the handler on how to hold the monkey during the visual inspection. The inspection process may require that the handler to take off the monkey's diaper as part of the visual inspection."
Government

US Lawmakers Eyeing National ID Card 826

Posted by timothy from the oh-wait-didn't-we-mention-this? dept.
According to Wired (and no big surprise, considering the practicalities of implementing massive changes in medical finance), US lawmakers "are proposing a national identification card, a 'fraud-proof' Social Security card required for lawful employment in the United States. The proposal comes as the Department of Homeland Security is moving toward nationalizing driver licenses."
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Supersizing the "Last Supper" 98

Posted by samzenpus from the a-meal-fit-for-a-king-of-kings dept.
gandhi_2 writes "A pair of sibling scholars compared 52 artists' renditions of 'The Last Supper', and found that the size of the meal painted had grown through the years. Over the last millennium they found that entrees had increased by 70%, bread by 23%, and plate size by 65.6%. Their findings were published in the International Journal of Obesity. From the article: 'The apostles depicted during the Middle Ages appear to be the ascetics they are said to have been. But by 1498, when Leonardo da Vinci completed his masterpiece, the party was more lavishly fed. Almost a century later, the Mannerist painter Jacobo Tintoretto piled the food on the apostles' plates still higher.'"
Games

AbleGamers Reviews Games From a Disability Standpoint 125

Posted by Soulskill from the gaming-for-all dept.
eldavojohn writes "Early last month a visually impaired gamer sued Sony under the Americans with Disabilities Act (and if you think that people with disabilities don't play games, think again). The AbleGamers Foundation has decided to step forward and provide a rating system for games that blends together a number of factors to determine a score with regard to accessibility. Visual, hearing, motion, closed captioning, speed settings, difficulty settings and even colorblindness options are all taken into account when compiling these scores and reviewing these games."
IBM

IBM Files Patent For Bullet-Dodging Bionic Armor 379

Posted by Soulskill from the let-the-matrix-jokes-commence dept.
An anonymous reader writes with news that IBM has filed a patent for "Bionic body armor" that would protect a wearer from long-range gunfire by detecting the incoming bullets and administering small shocks to the appropriate muscles required for moving out of the way. Quoting the patent: "When a marksman (such as a sniper) is attempting to fire a projectile from a firearm, the marksman typically prefers to be as far away from the target as possible, thus giving him or her a head start for the escape after the firing. As an example, the longest reported sniper hit was from a distance of about 2500 meters, resulting in a time of flight of about 4 seconds for the projectile/bullet. Had the target been aware of the inbound projectile, avoiding it by simply walking away would have been possible." After detecting the projectile, the armor would calculate the trajectory and "stimulate the target to move in a predefined manner ... sufficient to avoid any contact with the approaching projectile."

Comment Here's an idea (Score 1) 17

by Malarame (#23600825) Attached to: NASA's Educational Game Proposal Deadline Extended
All the ideas I've heard for this game involve it being similar to Eve. My idea is to go a different direction: make this game a simulation of starting a space colony.

When players sign up, they get to choose what colony they join. Each colony would be on some sort of planet -- maybe one would be Mars-based, one based on Venus, one Earth-like, etc. Maybe they have some sort of profession, too. The gameplay would be similar to A Tale in the Desert (note: I've never played that game, so I'm basing this on what I've heard about it). The residents of a colony will have to work together to make laws, build new buildings, run experiments, etc. All the things that would happen in a real colony. At various times they would recieve supplies from Earth, but maybe there are occasional emergencies like the supplies being lost. Maybe the endgame for a colony would be to become self-sufficient.

Here's one catch, though: In order to have new residents move in, there needs to be housing for them. So one of the decisions the residents will have to make is how much housing to build. Maybe they have enough supplies to build more housing or a new research building, but not both. And along with housing, they have to have the resouces to support the new residents (food, water, oxygen, etc). New residents won't just come from new players, though -- people will be able to transfer between colonies (maybe once a month, there'll be an opportunity to change. This way, people won't just hop around all the time). Part of the game will involve trying to attract people from other colonies, and maybe even selecting who gets to come if there are more transfers than they can accept.

Another thing the residents of a colony will have to do is justify their existence to Earth. That means making science breakthroughs, constantly expanding, showing that they're a fair society, and so on. If they can't prove that they're useful, or if one person takes over and becomes a dictator, they might find their funding dry up and all the residents will be forced to transfer.

There would be other aspects to the game as well, but this gives you all a good idea of what it would be like. I don't know if something like this would be fun to play or not, but with the number of people who like non-violent games like Second Life, there may be a niche community who would enjoy it. I know I would play it.

Thoughts, anyone?

Feed Auditory nerve implant could drastically benefit deaf individuals (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Early last year, gurus at the University of Michigan were devising a newfangled type of cochlear implant, but now it looks like the Wolverines are more interested in a fresh auditory nerve implant that is being dubbed "a superior alternative" to the (now) old fashioned option. The uber-thin electrode array would purportedly "transmit a wide range of sounds to the brain," and could give profoundly and severely deaf people the ability to "to hear low-pitched sounds common in speech, converse in a noisy room, identify high and low voices, and appreciate music." Researchers on the project are convinced that this technology trumps cochlear implants in every way, and while preliminary patents have already been filed, it'll still be nearly a decade at best before these things can invade human ears en masse.

[Via Physorg]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed WPI students create wireless 3D ring mouse (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Peripherals

No doubt we've seen some snazzy takes on mousing instruments, but when Popular Science dubs your twist on the critter we couldn't do without an Invention of the Year, you've accomplished something. A team of WPI undergraduate students were able to win such an honor by crafting the MagicMouse, a "three-dimensional computer mouse" that allows users to "control and manipulate items on a computer screen just by pointing at the monitor." While we've seen similar ideas for helping disabled individuals interface with a computer, this wee iteration actually fits around one's finger and "uses an array of receivers to track the motion of a tiny ultrasonic transmitter." The cursor is moved by waving one's hand back and forth, while moving closer and backing away enables zooming functions to be utilized, which should make handling those CAD drawings a good bit easier. Perhaps most notable, however, is the relatively low cost of assembly, as the entire contraption (rechargeable Li-ion and all) cost just $155, and we're sure you know how far that could fall if a bulk buying manufacturer brought it to commercialization. A few more pictures after the jump.

[Via Gizmag]

Continue reading WPI students create wireless 3D ring mouse

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Tom's Hardware Looks at Microsoft Vista Beta 338

Posted by timothy from the no-not-the-vista dept.
RockClimbingFool writes "Tom's Hardware has a pretty good overview of what the current beta version of Microsoft Windows Vista has to offer. The article is written from an average user's perspective, specifically highlighting exactly which differences the average computer user can expect to see from Windows XP to Windows Vista. It covers everything from IE7, to the new Windows Aero interface, to brand new games." But if you'd like your eye candy open source and downloadable now, check out Lunapark6's review of the current version of Ubuntu Dapper, with "emphasis placed on helping someone set up the system for everyday desktop usage."

UK Government Wants Private Encryption Keys 822

Posted by Zonk from the my-keys-not-yours dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Businesses and individuals in Britain may soon have to give their encryption keys to the police or face imprisonment. The UK government has said it will bring in the new powers to address a rise in the use of encryption by criminals and terrorists." From the article: "Some security experts are concerned that the plan could criminalise innocent people and drive businesses out of the UK. But the Home Office, which has just launched a consultation process, says the powers contained in Part 3 are needed to combat an increased use of encryption by criminals, paedophiles, and terrorists. 'The use of encryption is... proliferating,' Liam Byrne, Home Office minister of state told Parliament last week. 'Encryption products are more widely available and are integrated as security features in standard operating systems, so the Government has concluded that it is now right to implement the provisions of Part 3 of RIPA... which is not presently in force.'"

Telecoms Facing $50 Billion Lawsuit for Wiretaps 585

Posted by Zonk from the answer-to-the-people dept.
hdtv writes "According to a MarketWatch article, BellSouth Corp and Verizon Telecommunications are facing lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for the decision to turn over calling records to the government. The damages amount to $1,000 per person, whose records were turned over to Feds. According to the article, 'consumers could sue the phone service providers under communications privacy legislation that dates back to the 1930s. Relevant laws include the Communications Act, first passed in 1934, and a variety of provisions of the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act, including the Stored Communications Act, passed in 1986.'"

Small Cable Groups Seek To Break Net Neutrality 499

Posted by Zonk from the because-gas-and-bandwidth-totally-the-same dept.
saikou writes "CNet's News.com has a story on the first cable companies openly going against Net Neutrality. As usual, request for equal treatment is labeled as 'special favors', and Google is used as an example of company that should pay for a fast connection to the end user." From the article: "'I think what the phone industry's saying and what we're saying is we've made an investment, and I don't think the government should be coming and telling us how we can work that infrastructure, simple as that,' Commisso said during a panel discussion about issues faced by companies like his, adding, 'Why don't they go and tell the oil companies what they should charge for their damn gas?'"

NASA Hacker Gary McKinnon Interviewed 402

Posted by CowboyNeal from the out-of-this-world dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A BBC article reports about an interview between Click and Gary McKinnon who in 2002 hacked into NASA and other US Military networks. In the interview he talks about how he accessed machines by using default passwords and a conversation with a NASA network engineer using Wordpad. He also talks about how he found information about anti-gravity, UFO technology, free energy and how UFOs are regularly airbrushed out from high-resolution satellite images."

Spafford On Security Myths and Passwords 356

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the mostly-just-laziness dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In a recent blog post, Eugene Spafford examines password security along with related issues and myths. In particular, he discusses how policies that may not necessarily make much sense anymore end up being labeled 'best practices,' and then propagated based on their reputation as such."

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