Cameras everywhere - Google Glass, Russian dash-cams

I thought this article on the ubiquity of cameras explored some good questions.

"Mr Gurrin wears a wide-angle camera around his neck which snaps several pictures of his field of view every minute, recording its location and orientation... for more than seven years... he has built up an archive of 12m images"
"Adding a run-of-the-mill digital camera to a phone, or pretty much anything else, costs about $10"
"Steve Ward of VIEVU, a Seattle firm that has been selling wearable cameras ... says the devices can help protect any professional who takes on legal liabilities: repairmen, estate agents, doctors..."
"More than a million cars in Russia now sport dashboard-cams that record the road ahead. This is mainly so that drivers can defend themselves against fraudulent insurance claims"
"patients with impaired memories should wear such devices...could alleviate some symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer's"
"The plan is to perch all the functions of a smartphone on the bridge of the user's nose...imagines apps that provide historical information to sightseers in foreign cities, or that help people identify plants and birds in their gardens. Telling people what they are seeing can make them more observant, more absorbed...Mr Gelernter has a deep dislike for the way it would interpose itself between the user and his world, including the other people in it...people surreptitiously using Glass as a teleprompter, perhaps to seem more knowledgeable, could put at "risk the very frankness and honesty of human communications"."
"...creepy. Take, for example, an idea on which Google applied for a patent in 2011: a camera that would keep track of which adverts and billboards its wearer noticed, and of any emotional responses they evoked..."
[Facial recognition] "Governments check whether faces are turning up on more than one driver's licence per jurisdiction; police forces identify people seen near a crime scene."
"Well aware of such concerns, Google has banned the use of face recognition in the apps that it makes available for Glass (dubbed Glassware)."
"But face recognition has its attractions, too. Bar staff and bouncers could be warned of trouble on the way (a British company already provides such a service); the ability to greet everyone cheerily by name might be welcomed in many service industries."
"What about a world in which, simply by living their lives, people create vast searchable records of all they have seen—a world, not of Big Brother, but of a billion Little Brothers? "



From The Economist, Nov '13
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21589863-it-getting-ever-easier-record-anything-or-everything-you-see-opens

Tesla is doing very well thanks to the government

Tesla surprised analysts by repaying their federal Department of Energy loan of $465M early. On the heels of a 5-star crash rating, they are doing very well.

"...the government loaned Tesla startup money, it helps bring in customers with tax incentives, and it guarantees Tesla at least some return through emissions-credit system. Short of sending congress to the factory to bolt together cars, there's not much more government can do for Tesla."

-Aaron Robinson, Car & Driver, Nov 2013.

Clip-on works to repel mosquitoes.

Evaluation of commercial products for protection from mosquito bites. 

"...The personal diffusers: - OFF!(®) Clip-On™ and Terminix(®) ALLCLEAR(®) Sidekick - provided superior protection compared with all other devices in this study. These diffusers reduced biting on the arms of volunteers by 96.28% and 95.26% respectively..."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23092689/?i=7&from=cinnamon%20comparative

MBNA privacy policy - beware!

Can you believe this privacy policy?? They even reference it by saying "Protecting your privacy is important to us."
Directly from their privacy policy, buried deep under "additional detail" it says
"

Companies, such as retailers, merchants, manufacturers, direct marketers, communications companies, travel companies, and the like, offering products or services not directly related to the financial product or service we are providing to you

Name, postal address, telephone number (including for text messaging), date of birth, SIN (if provided), occupation, Account number, expiry date, e-mail address,

"
Are you kidding me? They will share your social insurance number and date of birth, enough info to apply for a loan or steal your identity, to direct marketers etc.

All this from a multinational giant that has leapfrogged its way to billions in profits. Thanks!
http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=dlj

Abundance of a species overwhelms predators - predator satiation.

Here is a popular science article about predator satiation with the humble defenseless cicada.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/why-do-cicadas-invade-such-crazy-numbers

Here is a wikipedia article on the phenomenon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_satiation

The antarctic is an example of an ecosystem characterized by sheer abundance:
"Fauna exists in overwhelming abundance, especially during the brief austral summer. Hundreds of thousands of penguins gather to breed and feed. Whales, seals and albatross share the vast spaces. Krill, the most abundant animal in the world, occupies a central place in the Antarctic ecosystem and provides the basic food source for many Antarctic predators. "
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/polarbound/antarctic.asp

Peter Gabriel at his best

This incredibly imaginative concert, Growing Up Live, is veritable performance art. See what artful use he makes of the stage and props, especially in "Downside Up" (at 3:42) and "Growing Up"

The whole concert is available in very low quality filmed from the audience here or as a DVD video.