Hello again all. Let's get right into it, shall we? From the who-didn't-see-that-coming department, across in the U.K. an aide to David Cameron (the current U.K. prime minister), Patrick Rock, has been arrested on child pornography allegations. If that wasn't bad enough, Mr. Rock was involved in drawing up the policy on child pornography and other Internet pornography filters. One has to wonder if he would claim he was 'studying it so he could fight it better'. Well, at least we know the Internet filters are working, but no-one seemed to notice until just now that it was being filtered straight into Mr. Rock's office.
Speaking of filters and restrictions that only seem to benefit the few, if you're thinking of treating your coffee maker like a dumb appliance that you can refill with whatever you want, Keurig has some plans for you. It seems they got jealous of printer and ink manufacturers and are planning on locking out 'unauthorized' refills to their coffee maker. I am not a coffee drinker, but I cringe when I imagine a world where someone is asking how to jailbreak their coffee maker on the Internet. What's next? Unauthorized food in your new fridge?
In other news of not having the rights you thought you had, Russia. That's all one has to say these days, a single word, Russia. The G-7 decided to say a few more words to Russia though. I'm not sure what impact, if any, this will have on Russia. Poland is nervous, as they should be, hoping Russia just taking what they want doesn't expand and swallow them up too. This is especially true if reports of Russia deploying 3500 troops near Poland's border is accurate. Hopefully Mr. Putin isn't as crazy as everyone fears he is. It seems president Obama is in for a fight if Russia decides Poland is too good to pass up invading.
In science news that doesn't involve destroying the world and starting world war three, scientists have gotten one step closer to developing an H.I.V. vaccine. While this isn't indicative of a cure, it helps us see a possibility for the body to develop an immune response faster than it ordinarily would. More and more the stuff of science fiction is showing up in our lives.
Blasting from the fictional past, I recently came across the most awesome simulation of the computer system from Jurassic Park. If any of you want to see an easter egg, zebraGirl.jpg, that's my only hint for you. ;). In the movie Lex is a hacker when the generally accepted meaning was someone who was really smart, not someone who was really dangerous. I wonder if the scouts (boy or girl) have a hacking badge yet. Survival training for the 21st century.
In scouting news, or money news, however you look at it, it seems Disney is ending their funding of the boy scouts. Honestly, it was news to me that they funded the boy scouts to begin with, but the reason they are ending their funding is because the Boy Scouts of America have a policy that bans gay adult leaders in the organization. I've never been a scout and I am loathe to side with Disney on this (with their perpetual copyright on everything insanity) but I cannot see what sexual orientation has to do with scouting. Someone in that organization is hiding something.
Speaking of hiding, it seems that fish in the sea have gotten really good at it. According to an article at Phys.org, ninety-five percent of the world's fish hide in something called the mesopelagic zone. This zone was previously thought to be the equivalent of an ocean desert, but it turns out that the fish in this area are just really really good at avoiding fishing nets for sampling. That's a heck of a game of hide-and-go-seek you're playing fish, but on the bright side, now we know where you're most likely to be.
In completely unrelated sampling news from Phys.org once more, a team of British researchers have suggested that to determine if a dog was to be aggressive, don't only look at the breed, but look at the owner as well. Now, this makes sense on some level as if you mis-treat a dog and keep it chained up, it's more likely to be aggressive and bite someone if it's ever let loose. The reliability of the study is suspicious though, as it relied on owners to respond to a survey on how they felt about dog aggression. I think it's reasonable to assume that owners would not say their dogs are as aggressive. If I were given the survey and if my dog wasn't aggressive, I would be more likely to return it saying so. The researchers probably should have gotten a larger sample of breeds and evaluated their results using behaviorists, interviewing the dog owners to come to a more scientific conclusion. Perhaps they didn't have their cup of coffee that morning.
Across at acs.org, researchers are using caffeine derived compounds in a bid to fight cancer cells. Caffeine at certain levels can kill cancer cells but they start affecting healthy cells as well, so the researchers paired it with gold (which also wipes out cancer cells but, like caffeine harm healthy cells) to see if they could find a compound that would only kill cancer cells and leave the healthy cells alone. Turns out, one of the compounds they created, worked! Maybe one day you are diagnosed with cancer and all you have to do is go around the corner and order a cup of cancer-killing coffee and go along with the rest of your day. Maybe they'll also develop an app that will show you where the cancer-killing coffee shops are so you can find the closest one.
In non-imaginary app news, it seems more and more Americans are spending time online on their various devices (away from those not-as-hip-and-trendy PCs) and this supports thinking that the PC is declining as a platform, especially as PC sales have declined significantly last year. What's not going to help the PC industry is that Apple recently announced Carplay, a better(tm) way to use you iPhone while in your car. It pretty much looks like a built in display that the iPhone replicates to and probably integrates with your speakers and a microphone somewhere in the car. Given the fierce competition between Apple and Google, I'm waiting for a self-driving Android car to show up.
Well that's all for now, I hope you enjoyed the ride. Keep safe all and remember to keep your eyeballs squishy!
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