XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Monday, 21 June 2010

Inventors have created a female condom which 'bites' a man's penis in a bid to ward off or catch would-be rapists -

Inventors have created a female condom which 'bites' a man's penis in a bid to ward off or catch would-be rapists -

The device has gone on sale in South Africa where Dr Sonnet Ehlers is distributing the condom — called RapeX — for free during the World Cup.

South Africa has one of the worst rape rates in the world.

The woman wears the condom and during intercourse its jagged teeth-like hooks attach themselves to the man's penis.

RapeX ... condom with teeth

www.antirape.co.za

Once it grabs on only a doctor can remove it.

Dr Ehlers said: "It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it's on.

"If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter, however it doesn't break the skin and there's no danger of fluid exposure.",

She plans to distribute 30,000 of the free devices during the tournament before selling them for $2 each.

"The ideal situation would be for a woman to wear this when she's going out on some kind of blind date ... or to an area she's not comfortable with," she said.

Dr Ehlers said she consulted engineers, gynecologists and psychologists to ensure the condom's design was safe.

And she even asked rapists in jail whether the device would have deterred them - some admitted it would have, she said.

But critics say if the man is trapped by the device it puts the woman at risk of further harm and describe it as "medieval".

"Yes, my device may be a medieval, but it's for a medieval deed that has been around for decades," Ehlers said.

"I believe something's got to be done and this will make some men rethink before they assault a woman."

No charges for cop who couldn't shoot straight - 19 shots hit everything but bad guy - bullets hit homes, sheds and decks

No charges for cop who couldn't shoot straight - 19 shots hit everything but bad guy - bullets hit homes, sheds and decks -

The police chief in London, Ont., says an officer who fired 19 bullets at a fleeing robber won't face criminal charges, but also isn't returning to the streets right away.

Chief Murray Faulkner told a news conference today the officer will continue administrative duties until he can demonstrate his level of competency and confidence using a firearm.

The chief also announced new training methods for all officers.

The officer, who has five years experience with London police, fired 19 shots as he chased a robbery suspect through several backyards before other officers arrived and arrested him.

The bullets hit homes, sheds and decks.

The suspect, Paul O'Connell, pleaded guilty to two robberies, attempted theft and failing to stop for police, and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The stunning green glow of the Southern Lights photographed by astronauts from ABOVE -

The stunning green glow of the Southern Lights photographed by astronauts from ABOVE -

Like a green ribbon snaking its way out into space this stunning image shows the famous Southern Lights from a rather unusual angle - above.
Taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), this picture shows the aurora australis against the backdrop of Earth's horizon.
These ever-shifting displays are most visible near the North (aurora borealis) and South (aurora australis) Poles.

Green flash: The Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) as observed From the International Space Station. The curve of the Earth and the blue light of the atmosphere can also be seen

The ISS was over the Southern Indian Ocean at an altitude of 350 km, with the astronauts looking towards Antarctica and the South Pole.
Dense cloud cover is dimly visible below the aurora. The curvature of the Earth’s horizon can be clearly seen as well as the faint blue line of the upper atmosphere.

The stunning sight is formed as charged particles streaming from the Sun – known as the solar wind - interact with Earth’s magnetic field, resulting in collisions with atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere.
This striking aurora image was taken during a geomagnetic storm that was probably caused by a coronal mass ejection from the Sun on May 24th.
The atoms emit photons as a means of returning to their original energy state. The photons form the aurora that we see.

Down to Earth: A more typical view of the Southern Lights over the Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole taken in 2002

The most commonly observed colour of aurora is green, caused by photons (light) emitted by excited oxygen atoms at wavelengths centered at 0.558 micrometers, or millionths of a metre.
Visible light is reflected from healthy (green) plant leaves at approximately the same wavelength.
Red aurora are generated by light emitted at a longer wavelength (0.630 micrometers), and other colours such as blue and purple are also sometimes observed.
While aurora are generally only visible close to the poles, severe magnetic storms impacting the Earth’s magnetic field can shift them towards the equator.

Read more - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1288284/Revealed-The-stunning-green-glow-Southern-Lights-photographed-astronauts-ABOVE.html#

Saturday, 19 June 2010

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

Mysterious Clouds Produced by Aircraft Cause Rain or Snow - and leave behind odd-shaped holes or channels in the clouds -

Jets and turboprop aircraft leave unusually shaped clouds in their wakes.
Credit and Larger Version

June 14, 2010

As turboprop and jet aircraft climb or descend under certain atmospheric conditions, they can inadvertently "seed" mid-level clouds, causing narrow bands of snow or rain to develop and fall to the ground, new research finds.

Through this seeding process, the aircraft leave behind odd-shaped holes or channels in the clouds that have long fascinated the public.

The key ingredient for developing these holes in the clouds: water droplets at subfreezing temperatures, below about 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius).

As air is cooled behind aircraft propellers or over jet wings, the water droplets freeze and drop toward Earth.

"Anytime aircraft fly through these specific conditions, they are altering the clouds in a way that can result in enhanced precipitation nearby," says Andrew Heymsfield, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and lead author of a paper reporting results of research into the phenomenon.

A similar process can occur with jet aircraft, which need colder temperatures (below about -4 to -13 degrees F, or -20 to -25 degrees C) to generate the seeding effect. Air is forced to expand over the wings as the aircraft moves forward, cools, and freezes the cloud droplets.

Precipitation from planes may be particularly common in regions such as the Pacific Northwest and western Europe because of the frequent occurrence of cloud layers with supercooled droplets, Heymsfield says.

Results of the study, which addressed long-standing questions about unusual cloud formations known as hole-punch and canal clouds, are published this month in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

In addition to NCAR scientists, the team included researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Wyoming, as well as a retired cloud physicist.

"These results indicate how aircraft influence clouds and precipitation," says Brad Smull of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funds NCAR. "For several decades, scientists have wondered about the causes of clouds with these [hole-punch] gaps. The new findings are of particular interest to researchers studying natural processes in clouds."

Across the world, sightings of blue-sky holes piercing a cloud layer have triggered bemusement and speculation.

A front-page feature on Yahoo! carried the headline "A Halo over Moscow" after photos emerged of just such a hole in October 2009.

Researchers have proposed a number of possible aviation-related causes, from acoustic shock waves produced by jets, to local warming of the air along a jet's path, to the formation of ice along jet contrails. Indeed, the earliest observations implicated jet aircraft, but not propeller aircraft, as producing the holes.

Researchers in the 1980s observed that propeller aircraft could transform supercooled droplets into ice crystals, and experiments were launched in the 1990s to characterize the phenomenon.

But scientists had not previously observed snow as it fell to the ground as a result of aircraft until Heymsfield and his colleagues happened to fly through some falling snow west of Denver International Airport with an array of instruments.

While they did not notice anything unusual at the time of their 2007 flight, a subsequent review of data from a ground-based radar in the area revealed an unusual echo, indicating that the band of precipitation had evolved quickly and was unusually shaped.

"It became apparent that the echo had evolved in a unique way, but I had no satisfactory explanation," says Patrick Kennedy, a Colorado State University radar engineer who spotted the unusual readings and helped write the paper.

Heymsfield and Kennedy went back through data from their aircraft's forward- and downward-viewing camera. They noticed a hole in an otherwise-solid deck of altocumulus clouds in the forward imagery, as well as a burst of snow that extended to the ground.

Since the hole was oriented in the same direction as the standard flight tracks of commercial aircraft in the region, Heymsfield surmised that a plane flying through the cloud might have somehow caused ice particles to form and "snow out" along its path, leaving a canal-shaped, hole-punch cloud behind.

A subsequent review of flight track records from the Federal Aviation Administration revealed that turboprop planes operated by two airlines flew close to the hole-punch location, following a standard flight path that produced the subsequent band of snow.

Snow crystals began falling about five minutes after the second aircraft flew through the cloud.

The snowfall, in a band about 20 miles long and 2.5 miles wide, continued for about 45 minutes, resulting in about two inches of snow on the ground.

The researchers also examined data from onboard spectrometers that profiled the snowflakes in the band of snow beneath the hole-punch.

These plate-shaped crystals showed evidence of riming (accumulation of liquid water), whereas ice particles elsewhere in the cloud showed little or no riming.

"This tells us that the aircraft literally ‘seeded' the cloud just by flying through it," Heymsfield says.

The cloud layers outside Denver contained supercooled droplets --particles of water that remain liquid even at extremely low temperatures.

The research team conducted additional studies into the cooling over the wings of jet aircraft, thereby accounting for earlier observations of the impact of jets.

"This apparently happens frequently, embedded in the cloud layers," Heymsfield says. "You wouldn't necessarily see it from satellite or from the ground.

"I had no idea this was happening. I was sitting in back of the plane. And then this data set just fell in our laps. It was a lucky break."

-NSF-

Above Alabama, hole-punch clouds dot the sky.
Credit and Larger Version

Hole-punch clouds seem to touch a streetlight in Washington State.
Credit and Larger Version

Clouds in the shape of hole-punches in the skies above Wisconsin.
Credit and Larger Version

Hole-punch clouds appear over Norfolk, Va., with aircraft contrails leading from them.
Credit and Larger Version

More Meat Consumption Leads to Earlier Puberty for Girls - and increase risk of cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis -

According to a new study, girls who eat the most meat products during childhood may have an earlier occurrence of puberty, increasing their risks of diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Researchers followed 3,298 girls in Bristol, England, and gathered their dietary intakes when they were 3, 7, and 10 years old. Forty-nine percent of girls who ate more than 12 portions of meat per week started their periods by age 12, compared with 35 percent of girls who ate fewer than four portions of meat per week.

Another recent study compared food consumption habits in the United States in 1909 and 2007 and showed that meat intake rose from 123 pounds to more than 200 pounds per person per year while cheese intake increased nine fold.

Sunday, 13 June 2010

10 Everyday Items Hackers Are Targeting Right Now - hackers have figured out how to attack everyday items -

Just when you thought it was safe to use your computer, hackers have figured out how to attack everyday items. Your printer, your cellphone -- even the blender in your kitchen -- can be hacked and used against you.

And in the not-too-distant future, as the medical field makes advances with machine-to-human interfaces, even your own body and brain could be at risk.

Here are 10 everyday items that are open to fresh attacks from criminals.

1. Your CarVehicles like the Mercedes S550 use a cellular connection that lets you lock and unlock your car remotely. The Chrysler Grand Caravan has an on-board Wi-Fi connection to the Internet. GM vehicles use OnStar to communicate with the outside world; the company even incorporates a kill switch you can use if your car is stolen.

David Perry, a virus expert at Trend Micro, notes that most cars have multiple computers on board and a network of devices that use Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. Perry claims "white hat hackers" -- the good guys who hack into systems to prove they have security problems -- have shown that cars are at risk.

"The future of car theft might easily turn digital," said Perry. "It might be possible to freeze traffic on a crowded road, stopping enough cars using a Bluetooth hack or a connected mobile phone. These attack vectors are real; what really matters is what the hacker wants to do."

Car hacking is so new, the auto industry has not addressed the problem fully. You can request that your dealer disable some of these computer systems and wireless networks. Cellular networks protect signals by switching base stations routinely.

2. That New GPS Gizmo
GPS uses orbiting satellites to route you through traffic. According to Robert Siciliano, the CEO at IDTheftSecurity.com, hackers would have a hard time causing trouble with these satellites. But the bad guys can access a GPS device when it downloads updates over the Internet -- and then can install a remote access tool and track your whereabouts.

Perry said criminals who tap into your GPS could send you to a shady location, such as an empty warehouse, and then rob you. Hackers also use GPS jammers, readily available online, that confuse the signal and can cause traffic jams and driver errors.

3. Your CellphoneYour cellphone is an easy target for hacking. Spyware tools that infect your phone are readily available on the Internet, Siciliano says. First you receive a text message with a link offering some free service. When you click the link, the hackers gets full access to your phone.

In one deceptively simple attack, you get a free cellphone in the mail with printed materials that make it look like you can test it for a week and send back. As you test, the phone records video and audio. When you send it back, the hacker uses the personal info against you.

Perry said another dangerous hack occurred in Japan. Hackers tapped into emergency phone services and disabled emergency calling. He said it's an example of one of the more dangerous exploits -- hackers shutting down important city services.

As with any connected device, you can disable Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and even carrier service when you're not using the phone. Also, never click text message links from unknown senders.

4. The Front-Door Security SystemYou bolt the door, install videocams, and add a security alarm -- and still the criminals can break in! The reason: a lock bumping technique where a master key -- designed for popular locks -- unlocks the front door. That video signal, if transmitted over an unsecured Wi-Fi signal, is easy to compromise. And, according to security expert Winn Schwartau from The Security Awareness Company, a zap from a powerful (but expensive) electro-mechanical interference device can disable some alarm systems.

Perry said home automation systems designed for convenience (like the popular Schlage Link) make the front door hackable -- criminals can simply intercept the wireless signal to unlock or lock the front door. And if a hacker steals your cellphone, he can access your home with these convenience tools.

But it's easy to prevent: Enable the password feature that blocks access to your phone. Also, make sure you use strong encryption, such as AES, on your home wireless network.

5. Your Blender. Yes, Your BlenderThat's right: your blender is under attack! Most mixers are self-contained and not hackable, but Siciliano says many home automation systems tap into appliances such as blenders and coffee machines. These home networks are then open to attack in surprising ways: A hacker might turn on the blender from outside your home to distract you as he sneaks in a back window, he warns.

Interestingly, home automation systems such as those from Hawking Technology use wireless networks that home owners install on their own. Many folks simply don't bother to configure the security options -- it's easier and faster to just run an open (and easy to hack) network.

6. Your PrinterYour printer is open to attack -- especially if you use a model that uses a Wi-Fi connection, like the HP Deskjet 6980. That over-the-air signal is probably not as protected as computer connections, which often use industrial-grade encryption, such as AES.

Once a hacker can access your printer, Siciliano says he can read (and steal) anything you print -- or the criminals can access the network and your PC to steal data directly.

7. Your New Digital CameraYes, even a camera can be hacked.

Any hardware gadget that has local storage, which includes video cameras, digital cameras, and even those cheap and wildly popular Flip cams, can be infected with a virus. Once you connect the cam to your computer, that virus can corrupt the device or provide remote access to spies.

Perry said TrendMicro has identified commercial malware that can run on a video camera or the webcam on your laptop. It records all activity and can be used for spying on you.

8. The Power Sockets in Your WallsThe power in your home is hackable as well, especially as the U.S. moves to a "smart grid" that lets consumers monitor and control their own power consumption.

Perry said the danger is that criminals will figure out how to steal power, use it in their own homes or businesses, and make it look like you're the consumer. Or hackers could turn off your power, or cruelly jack up the meter to increase your bill.

For now, most of us are safe; the smart grid is more of an idea than a reality, although there are several test deployments across the country. Once the smart grid becomes common, Schwartau said filtering, a method of making sure the power is actually reaching the intended recipients, could help ensure the grid is not hackable. We'll see.

9. The Human BodyIt sounds far-fetched because most of us don't have that computer-to-human interface installed quite yet. But researchers at MIT have shown how computers can help the disabled walk or play videogames. And it could be just a matter of time before humans are "augmented" this way.

Besides, Perry said, the idea of hacking into a pacemaker is a proven reality, since some of the devices use Bluetooth connections for control. "In several studies, it was shown that hacking a pacemaker was pitifully easy," he said. "This might be a good example of a cyberkill."

"I've given demonstrations of high power electro-mechanical interference. We had to make sure that folks with pacemakers were at least 100 meters away," Schwartau said.

10. Even the Human BrainThe last frontier of hacking: stealing information directly from your brain. Once again, research institutions such as Harvard and MIT have shown that it is possible to tap into the brain at some level to control motor functions, such as lifting an arm or blinking.

Criminal control of your brain sounds like science fiction, but Schwartau insists that anything is hackable -- even your mind. Perry said hackers already infect the human brain, using a process call social engineering. This involves tricking you into giving out a password over Facebook or revealing private info during an earnest (but fake) phone survey.

Most security experts agree: the most dangerous hacks are those that trick employees at a company or any consumer who divulges private information.

Great Gulf Oil spill solution proposal from Van Den Noort Innovations BV - can get the oil under control within days -

How to stop the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico within days
(Alternative Response Technology)

		A. Find a suitable ship or pontoon of considerable size with (an) open compartment(s), flatten its top and turn it upside down before sinking it.B. Make a hole in the bottom and weld a vertical pipe on it. C. Make a shut-off at the pipe that can be controlled from the surface.
		D. Connect a flexible hose to the shut-off with a total length of about 1700 m, which is sufficient to reach the tanker on the surface.E. Connect the end of the pipe to the oil-tanker.
		F. Before sinking the ships compartment must be filled with warm water in order to preventmethane hydrate crystallization.G. Dump the upside down ship or pontoon over the leaking oil wells.
		H. Now the ship compartments are filled with oil and the oil is drained through the pipe to the oil tanker on the surface.NB. From now on the oil spill is under control and the leak should have stopped.
		I. In order to stabilize the ship on the sea bottom and to neutralize the high oil pressure, heavy basalt blocksshould be dumped through a shaft to the ship.
		J. Dump sufficient Basalt blocks on and around the ship in a circle of about 250 - 350 m.
		k. Thereafter, pour concrete over the basalt blocks in a circle of about 300- 400 m with an average thickness of about 8 - 10 meter.L. Let the concrete dry for about 7 days.
		M. Dump stabilized sand in a circle of about 800 - 1000 m, with a total thickness of 50 - 60 m.
		N. Close the shut-off in the drainpipe.O. Wait a couple of days and inspect the spot to make sure the leaking has stopped.
		P. Cut of the hose and seal it off.Q. "Now it is time to open a bottle of the best champagne".

PS. Also see our Oil Recovery Vessel

Read more - http://www.noort-innovations.nl/

Saturday, 12 June 2010

Racy lyrics lead Wendy's to pull CD from kid meals - "so horny" - had been marked as safe for 3 years old and up -

The fast food-chain Wendy's has pulled a disco CD included in kids' meals because of racy lyrics in one of the songs.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that one of the songs on the Disco Fever CD was Donna Summer's "Last Dance." The song has two sets of lyrics. One version includes the words "so bad." But some heard the alternative lyrics "so horny" on the CD, which had been marked as safe for 3 years old and up.

The Atlanta-based chain announced on its website Saturday that it would continue to put three other CDs in the kids' meals. Those CDs include the songs "ABC" by Jackson 5 and "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang. The website said Wendy's is "no longer offering" the Disco Fever CD but doesn't mention the reason.