Computer interface for the future, NOW

Click on the link to see the whole video. You'll see how images and text can move on the screen in front of the person, be manipulated and shared in real-time.

It's worth viewing, maybe even twice.

Google with a Street View

This is utterly fantastic!

At maps.google.com there is now, for San Francisco, a street view of the city. With Adobe Flashplayer you can see video captures of the streets of the city.

Try this and be amazed.

Molten core on the planet Mercury, possibl

"NASA scientists working with high-precision planetary radars in California have discovered strong evidence that the planet Mercury might have a molten core.

"Scientists had not expected to find a magnetic field at Mercury," said Professor Jean-Luc Margot of Cornell University, leader of the research team. "Planetary magnetic fields are associated with molten cores, and the prevailing theory was the planet was too small to have a molten core."

Since then, multiple radar observations have ruled out a solid core, leading to the finding that Mercury's core is molten -- or at least the outer core is molten and not forced to rotate along with its shell."

I'm not sure what this means in the grand scheme of things, but it goes to explaining more of our universe. And that's a good thing.

Fighting rape with co-evolution

The mallard Anas platyrhynchos: a species with high levels of forced copulations. Females have very elaborate vaginas (left) to counter males' phalluses (right). (Image: Patricia Brennan et al.)

"Some female ducks and geese have evolved complex genitalia to thwart unwelcome mating attempts, according to a new study.

Males of some species, such as mallard, have a notorious habit of "raping" females. They and other wildfowl are among the 3% of bird species whose males have phalluses big enough to insert into the vaginas of females, whether or not the female consents.

Now, in the most detailed analysis yet of duck and goose vaginas, researchers have established that females of these species have evolved vaginal features to thwart unwelcome males.

Some vaginas had spiral channels that would impede sex by twisting in the opposite direction to that of the male phallus. Others had as many as eight cul-de-sac pouches en route, that could prevent fertilisation by capturing unwelcome sperm. Moreover, these features were only found in species renowned for forced sex. All other species had simple male and female genitalia.

“These structures are wonderfully devious, sending sperm down the wrong road or impeding penetration,” says Birkhead.

He says that the features demonstrate an evolutionary "arms race" in which control over reproduction alternates between the sexes. If the male develops a longer, more elaborate phallus to force copulation, females wrest back control by developing features to thwart males who rape.

“It shows that females are not passive in averting exploitation by males with large phalluses,” says Birkhead. "

This is a terrific example of co-evolution. The aggressive males evolve to perpertuate their genes, hence the force coupling. The females evolve, almost simultaneously it seems, to counter the evolution of the males.

Fascinating.

Research on Erectile Dysfunction

Here's something truly amazing. Not for it's work, although I have to believe it's good, but for the nature of the research.

"Like a column collapsing under the burden of a heavy roof, erectile dysfunction is a classical mechanical engineering problem, says a US urologist. Using mathematical models of penis geometry and hydrostatic pressure, doctors can predict when penises will fail – and in which vagina – he says.

The most widely investigated parameter of penile rigidity is intracavernosal pressure (ICP) – the fluid pressure achieved by blood build up in the two expandable "caverns" of the penis. For a healthy man, the erect ICP is between 60 and 90 millimetres of mercury (mmHg), but can drop to just 30 mmHg, in men with erectile dysfunction (ED)."

Here's the abstract from the Journal:

"Two major branches of engineering mechanics are fluid mechanics and structural mechanics, with many practical problems involving the effect of the first on the second. An example is the design of an aircraft's wings to bend within reasonable limits without breaking under the action of lift forces exerted by the air flowing over them; another is the maintenance of the structural integrity of a dam designed to hold back a water reservoir which would exert very large forces on it. Similarly, fluid and structural mechanics are involved in the engineering analysis of erectile function: it is the hydraulic action of increased blood flow into the corpora cavernosa that creates the structural rigidity necessary to prevent collapse of the penile column."

If you have a copy of the paper, please email it to me. Thanks.

First it was animals, then people...

OOPS, that's wrong. It's first people then animals, so says the article. Used to be we tried experimental drugs on animals and then prescribed the drugs on people. That's in reverse:

Vets have rejected claims by a British animal welfare charity that giving dogs drugs to treat behavioural problems will create a population of "pill-popping pets".

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals expressed alarm at the news that an antidepressant called Reconcile - containing the same serotonin-reuptake inhibitor used in the human drug Prozac - has been licensed for use in dogs by the US Food and Drug Administration.

"Pet owners have a duty of care towards their animals," says charity scientist Penny Hawkins. "Pharmaceuticals should not be used to help sustain an unsustainable lifestyle by addressing problems that should be dealt with by other means, such as more exercise."

“Pet owners have a duty of care towards their animals. Drugs should not be used to sustain an unsustainable lifestyle”

But vets specialising in treating behavioural problems say medication can be extremely useful in treating anxiety symptoms such as howling and destructiveness.

Dogs with behavioural problems account for about a quarter those that are euthanised by veterinary practices, so by increasing the chances of successfully managing a problem drugs can improve welfare.

It used to be that if you had a dog, and it was a problem, you either gave the dog away, or had it killed. Simple. Dogs are dogs, after all, not people. Now, we're seeing a slide to drugs for dogs (and I'm sure other animals) that will only take us further along to more drugs, more medical treatment, more costs, and, if owners opt not to do these things, there will be societal (read: animal rights activits) pressure to force owners to do them.

Web browsers: Still unsafe

YOU are surfing the net, and stop at a sports site you regularly visit to read the latest headlines. You are always careful to avoid sites that appear suspect, so you feel safe online. Unbeknownst to you, though, and to the innocent owner of the website, a piece of malicious code has been added to the page you are viewing. This uploads software onto your computer via your browser, turning it into a "zombie" PC under the remote control of a malicious user.

While installing firewalls and antivirus software on your computer may keep it safe from conventional threats such as worms and viruses, these security tools do not inspect data downloaded through browsers - a loophole that attackers can exploit. "The firewall is dead," says Google security specialist Niels Provos.

The threat is real, not just a theoretical possibility:

Provos warned that many web users are becoming the victims of "drive-by" downloads of bots from innocent websites corrupted to exploit browser vulnerabilities. As firewalls allow free passage to code or programs downloaded through the browser, the bot is able to install itself on the PC. Anti-virus software kicks in at this point, but some bots avoid detection by immediately disabling it. Once a computer has become infected with the malicious software, the zombie periodically connects to a web server controlled by the botmaster to receive instructions and download more software.

To determine the scale of the problem, Provos's group at Google analysed several billion web pages and selected 4.5 million suspicious pages for more detailed study. To test for malicious software, or malware, they loaded a program designed to simulate a computer with a vulnerable version of Internet Explorer and monitored what happened. They found around 450,000 web pages that launched drive-by downloads of malicious programs. Another 700,000 pages launched downloads of suspicious software. More than two-thirds of the malicious programs identified were those that infected computers with bot software or programs that collected data on banking transactions and emailed it to a temporary email account.

You don't even know it's there. The result: be very careful with the sites you go to. If possible, don't use Internet Explorer; IE is a disaster for security.