HyperBored

How many ADHD brothers does it take to write a blog?

You smell like a Terrorist!

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The US is apparently developing technology to detect Terrorists by their body odor.

As a teenager, I remember my father telling my when he was in the military (he was deployed to Korea during the Vietnam Conflict) that near the DMZ they were under very strict diets. Basically no smelly foods. The Koreans couldn't eat Kimchi because the smell after eating it stuck around in your sweat for months. If I remember correctly, even the Americans were banned from certain foods. The Koreans complained that our high red meat diets gave us a stench unique to Americans.

This was particularly a problem when you were out on patrol and suddenly picked up the smell of Kimchi (something the North Koreans obviously didn't ban.

This technology obviously goes beyond diet and gets into body odor as a unique identifier, like your own finger print.

Army Wants Sensors to Nab Sweaty, Smelly Security Threats | Danger Room | Wired.com

The military’s been after scent-based detection systems for years now. In 2007, Pentagon research agency Darpa solicited proposals for sensors to sniff out terrorists using unique genetic markers found in human emanations. The idea was based on research showing that mice each carried a unique “odortype” that was consistent despite variables like stress, hydration or diet. And odortypes are so powerful, they stick around for around a month after their host body has fled the premises.

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Filed under  //   Military   Science   Science Stuff   Tac   Terrorism  

You Can't Make This Stuff Up: Jedi Mind, Inc. Begins Initiative for Thought Controlled Technologies

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A perfect name for a company doing kind of freaky stuff.
"Think-Tac-Toe" is the initial game developed by The Company, which utilizes thought controlled technology to play the game of tic-tac-toe with the power of your mind against the computer. The player selects the box of choice by moving right, left, up and down with their thoughts. Once the player or the computer successfully places three in a row, they are declared the winner.
via Jedi Mind, Inc. Begins Marketing Initiative for Developed Thought Controlled Technologies. Photo credit by AlwaysBreaking

Filed under  //   Jedi   Mind Tricks   Mind control   Science Stuff   Tac  

Who's going to clean up Space?

Which nations have the most satellites orbiting the Earth?

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Russia has the most followed by the US. Before you get all Cold War freaky, most of Russia's are inactive. Basically just orbiting junk. With Obama cutting NASA's budget, who's going to clean up this mess? For more cool visualization, check out Michael Paukner.
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Filed under  //   Barack Obama   Cold War   Earth   NASA   Science Stuff   Space   Technology  

4th dimensional creatures

so i have this thought, and i would kind of like some feedback, if i could. ok, so jason gilmore actually planted this seed over 2 decades ago without realizing what would become of it, well jason, here is my thought. jason told me of a story about a conversation between a 2 dimensional object and a 3 dimensional object. and basically it came down to, the 2d object could not see the 3d object, but it could see the shadow of the 3d object. and the 3d object could see the 2d object because it sees through the 2nd dimension. now that i have said that, here is my thought........ the 4th dimension is time, right? well what if "spirits" or the "spirit world" existed in the 4th dimension. because if we existed in time we would exist in all time, or no time. and this is how God knows all. because he exists in all time. now, what if these ghosts and spirits that people see are merely the "shadows" of 4th dimensional creatures. and if all that is true, then we are 4th dimensional creatures trapped in a 3 dimensional object. and through this is what allows us to do "super human" things. times when we shouldn't have been able to accomplish something, (whatever), and it happened. the power of will? we do know that the spirit world is here on earth, right? it just happens to exist in a different dimension. i say the 4th. time. so, basically we r 4th dimensional creatures residing in a 3 dimensional object. what say ye... i've been thinking more about this, and kurt vonnegut writes about it in slaughter house 5, when he talks about being "unstuck in time". (mark twain also talks about a kind of time line manipulation in the 5 boons of life. i think that is what it is called.) so being unstuck in time  would make sense if we were 4th dimensional creatures inside 3 dimensional objects. if time is the 4th dimension, and we are creatures of said dimension, then we already exist in all time. we exist in the time when we were born, as well as the time when our bodies die. all points in between, and if we learn to look hard enough through what some people call the 'vail", we can learn how to look into our own futures. just as easy as we can look into our pasts. you may say, we can look into our pasts, because we have already lived it. and i say, we have already lived all of our moments and we just have to catch up to them. just like a star that burnt out a million years ago, but we are just now seeing the light. does that star still exist? i say yes. and just like that star, we may "burn out" but we still continue on. now, gravity transcends all dimensions. so if we are 4th dimensional creatures, and when the 3 dimensional objects we live in, stop existing, then our selves will still be here on this spinning rock. they won't be sent into space where there is a magical place for the wise and the wicked. we will still be here trying to progress. just like we try here. if we aren't growing here, it will be the same on the other side. just a little different because we will exist in all time. all things that have happened will exist in on moment. or no moment. all time. or no time. so as we try to look through the fog and see what is to come, we can change what will happen. kind of. it takes a great effort on all fronts. mental, spiritual, physical. changing lifestyle. or something easy like opening a window, or not opening the window. but as soon as it happens all things after will fall into place. just like they are suppose to. if you push something over there is a reaction, and all things fall into place the way they should according to what had happened. just like if you don't push that thing over, then all the things will still fall into place the way that they should according to what just happened. just like opening the window, or not. more to come when the thought comes back. got lost in time. sorry...

Filed under  //   4th dimension   Science Stuff   aliens   god   scifi  

Augmented Reality Contact Lenses Freak Me Out... and Fascinate Me

This is the most cool/freaky thing I've seen in a while: Embedded Augmented Reality contact lenses. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="504" caption="AR Contact Lenses"]

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[/caption] On one hand anything to do with the eye freaks me out, even more than that scene from Star Trek, The Wrath of Khan when Khan puts that bug thing in Chekov's ear. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="A Rabbit with AR Lenses"]
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[/caption] Brian Lam at Gizmodo has two posts on the developing tech: Reality-Augmenting Terminator Vision Contact Lenses Nearly Here (They're in This Bunny's Eye) In These Solar Eye Circuits, Light is the Power and Signal Scientists right here at the University of Washington are working on mini circuit board contact lenses that will be capable of displaying augmented reality images. "Embedding" thing in the eye = Freaky Augmented reality in contact lenses = Freaky Cool According to the posts all the tech exists, it works, they're just perfecting it. The most recent post reports that they've even solved the power supply issue by using solar power.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="212" caption="Cover via Amazon"][[posterous-content:]][/caption]
BTW if you want to compare what's freakier, that bunny with the lens in or the scene from The Wrath of Khan, here's an extra creepy German version of the Chekov ear bug scene:
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Are We Cyborgs or Symbionts?

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Image by Lainy Voom via Flickr
Here's a story my favorite Cyborg Anthropologist @caseorganic Amber Case, would love. Although Katherine argues we are Symbionts vs Amber's Cyborgs, either way we've developed what some would say is an (arguably) unhealthy relationship with technology.
[W]e have become symbionts, says Katherine Hayles, author of “How We Became Posthuman.” Just as a lichen is the marriage of a fungus and an algae, we now live in full partnership with digital technology, which we rely on for the infrastructure of our lives. “If every computer were to crash tomorrow, it would be catastrophic,” she says. “Millions or billions of people would die. That’s the condition of being a symbiont.”
Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Smart mobbing and enjoying the garden We can't see the forest for the T-Mobiles - washingtonpost.com Maybe we're Symbiotic Cyborgs? Cyborg Symbionts? Symborgs? Either way we have become our own scifi story. Now I just need a cool soundtrack for my iPod to go with that.
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Filed under  //   Amber Case   Katherine Hayles   Science Stuff   Technology   cyborg   symbionts  

The Earth is Trying to Kill Us All. Run.

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Image by Tac Anderson via Flickr
Maybe it's the long, dark, winters in Seattle that have turned University of Washington professor Peter Ward into such a doom and gloom guy. The Seattle Weekly has a write up of his new book (which I'm seriously considering reading).
Ward's specialty is in mass extinctions. And having studied death on a grand scale, he has his own theories on what causes it. Specifically, Ward claims that four of the five great extinctions since the rise of animals weren't caused by volcanoes or meteors, they were caused by life itself.
And you thought Paleontologists were boring. The article doesn't give much insight into his book so I checked out Amazon:
Ward . . . adopts the tone of a planetary mortician gruesomely interested in his subject's decease. Ward is an expert on mass extinctions, and the subject seems to have infected his general outlook. He does not come across a happy camper.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="106" caption="The Medea Hypothesis"]
[/caption] Sounds AWESOME!!! In all fairness one commenter points out that Ward's point is more to jar us into realizing that if we're not careful Mother Earth has no problem putting the hurt on us all and starting over. But still if this isn't ripe for the SyFy channel I don't know what is (why did they change their name from SciFi?). Or maybe the Discover channel; When the Earth Attacks.
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Filed under  //   Books   Peter Ward   Science Stuff   apocalypse   paleontologist  

Stephen Hawking: Renowned Physicist and Children's Author

My thoughts and prayers are with Mr Hawking and his family. Something many people may not know about Hawking is that he is also a great children's author. Along with his Daughter Stephen authored George's Secret Key to the Universe. My kids (even my 4 yr old) sat enraptured to the book as my wife read it to them last summer. They love it and are waiting for the sequel. Scientist Stephen Hawking 'very ill' - CNN.com
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Scientist and author Stephen Hawking is "very ill" and has been hospitalized, according to Cambridge University, where he is a professor. Cambridge University said the 67-year-old is "comfortable" and will stay overnight at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. Hawking, one of the world's most famous physicists, is also a cosmologist, astronomer, and mathematician.
[UPDATE] BBC NEWS | UK | Hawking 'to make full recovery'
Scientist Stephen Hawking is expected to make a full recovery after being taken to hospital with chest problems, Cambridge University has said.
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Link Distractions 02/18/2009

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Image via Wikipedia
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Filed under  //   NASA   Satellite   Science Stuff