A breakthrough in wearable computing lets researchers change ordinary cotton and polyester into electronic textiles that can double as rechargeable batteries. That means powering an iPod or cell phone could become as easy as plugging it into your tee shirt or jeans and charging the clothing overnight.
Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/e-textile-charge/#ixzz0dJ5Rl6jE
Japan's aging population and low birthrate point to a looming shortage of workers, and Japan's elder care facilities and hospitals are already competing for nurses. This fact has not escaped Toyota, which runs Toyota Memorial Hospital in Toyota City, Japan. Taking a lead from Honda, Toyota in 2004 announced plans to build "Toyota Partner Robots" and begin selling them in 2010 after extensive field trials at Toyota Memorial.
This is more than some futuristic fantasy. The government is drafting safety regulations for service robots, which would include nursing droids. A new agency, the Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, has launched a five-year project to improve safety standards for the machines. The South Korean Government has even drawn up a code of ethics for how robots should treat humans and, perhaps ironically, how humans should treat robots.
To read more click on Robotic Nurses
Jan. 6, 2010 -- Cell phone exposure may be helpful in the fight against Alzheimer's disease, a new study shows.
The study, involving mice, provides evidence that long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves associated with cell phone use may protect against, and even reverse, Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
To read the complete article click on http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20100106/can-cell-phones-help-fight-alzheimers
Information on Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), a free antivirus and antispyware program, is available on the Microsoft blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/securitytipstalk/archive/2010/01/10/reviewers-like-microsoft-security-essentials.aspx:
Excerpt from one of the articles : "Not only did AV-Test.org find that it detects 98% of their enormous malware database, but AV-Comparatives (a widely known anti-malware testing group) found that
MSE was one of only three products that did well at both finding and removing malware, including the leftovers. It was also the only free product to grab their "Advanced+" rating—the top honor for an anti-malware solution."Hackers seeking source code from Google, Adobe and dozens of other high-profile companies used unprecedented tactics that combined encryption, stealth programming and an unknown hole in Internet Explorer, according to new details released by researchers at anti-virus firm McAfee.
"We have never ever, outside of the defense industry, seen commercial industrial companies come under that level of sophisticated attack," says Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research for McAfee. "It's totally changing the threat model."
Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/operation-aurora/#ixzz0cdsF417s
New Zealand: New cyber-monitoring measures have been quietly introduced giving police and Security Intelligence Service officers the power to monitor all aspects of someone's online life.
The measures are the largest expansion of police and SIS surveillance capabilities for decades, and mean that all mobile calls and texts, email, internet surfing and online shopping, chatting and social networking can be monitored anywhere in New Zealand.
Police and SIS must still obtain an interception warrant naming a person or place they want to monitor but, compared to the phone taps of the past, a single warrant now covers phone, email and all internet activity.
It can even monitor a person's location by detecting their mobile phone; all of this occurring almost instantaneously.
Police say in the year to June 2009, there were 68 interception warrant applications granted and 157 people prosecuted as a result of those interceptions.
Official papers obtained by the New Zealand Star-Times show that, despite government claims that it was done for domestic reasons, the new New Zealand spying capabilities are part of a push by United States agencies to have standardized surveillance capabilities available for their use from governments worldwide.
WOW! Click on NZ cyber spies for the complete article
