Who's Watching You?

You’re out for a Sunday ride with your friends, cruising out of town to enjoy your favorite twisties.

On the way back, you jump onto the freeway, where you pass under a metal canopy holding a row of sensors. The sensors download data from a GPS unit installed as standard equipment on your bike.

A couple of days later, a traffic ticket arrives at your home. The notation on it indicates that somewhere out there on those back roads, you exceeded the speed limit briefly. You can mail in your fine, or you can go to court and try to prove that you didn’t do what your own bike says you did.

• • •
You stop at a gas station to fill up, and a display on the pump indicates that it’s identified your motorcycle. The pump reads your bike’s onboard computer and then adjusts the price of the gas based on your road-usage patterns.

• • •
You pull a stack of letters out of the mailbox and notice an envelope from your insurance company. Inside is a bill that includes a hefty surcharge.

Why? The helpful note underneath explains that the insurance company has determined you’re spending much of your time on congested roads where the chances of being in an accident are higher. As a result, your insurance rate just went up.

• • •
Far-fetched? Hardly. The technology to do all that—and a lot more—already exists.

More significant, transportation officials and insurance companies are already testing ways to use this emerging technology in ways that have the potential to completely change the experience of riding your motorcycle.

If you live in even a moderate-sized city, chances are you’ve already seen some of this new technology at work in the form of stoplight cameras designed to catch drivers who run red lights.

But that’s just the start. Join us for a look at the type of tattletale tech that could increasingly allow others to look over your shoulder every time you go for a ride.

Data Recorders
Chances are, the only time you think of data recorders is when you hear about a plane crash in which investigators are trying to recover the aircraft’s “black box.”

But the fact is that more than two-thirds of the cars sold in the U.S. today also come with black boxes, technically called event data recorders (EDRs). They’ve been on many American cars since 2004, and in some stretching back to 1990. In all, experts estimate that EDRs have been installed on about 40 million cars.

The EDR works like an airplane’s flight data recorder, monitoring a wide range of information about the vehicle—speed, engine rpm, throttle or brake usage, even whether the occupants are wearing their seat belts. As a result, it offers a snapshot of what was going on with the vehicle when it crashed, and in the seconds leading up to that crash.

Originally, car manufacturers used EDRs to improve the performance of safety systems like airbags. But the information contained in those automotive black boxes is increasingly being revealed in court to help determine who was at fault in a crash. You may claim you were obeying the speed limit when you skidded on wet pavement and ran off the road, but your car may tell a different story.

Data recorder evidence has been introduced in accident cases in 19 states. One high-profile case that focused attention on EDRs was the 2003 crash in which South Dakota Congressman Bill Janklow ran a stop sign in his Cadillac and collided with a motorcycle ridden by Randy Scott, killing the rider. Traffic investigators extracted data from the Cadillac’s black box showing that Janklow was speeding as he blew by the stop sign and into the path of Scott’s bike.

The increasing number of automotive black boxes has sparked concerns on the part of people who say they represent an invasion of privacy. In response, the federal Department of Transportation has ordered the manufacturers of vehicles with EDRs to include that information in the owners manual, beginning in 2011.

What about EDRs in motorcycles? No one has indicated they are specifically installing such a device, but the computers that run modern engine-management systems track much of the same information, and it’s likely that some include storage of at least a few seconds of data to more precisely adjust things like spark timing and fuel mixture.

GPS, etc.
If knowing exactly how fast a vehicle is going before a crash can be considered an invasion of privacy, how about knowing exactly where that vehicle is, all the time?

That, too, is entirely possible with today’s technology.

Many car drivers and motorcyclists already use GPS units to keep them from getting lost on the road. But officials in California and Oregon have considered requiring them on vehicles to track how many miles they travel and whether they go out of state as an alternate way to assess highway taxes.

Oregon in particular is looking at GPS tracking to compute gasoline taxes. The onboard GPS would record where a vehicle goes and how many miles it’s driven. Then the tax would be determined at the gas pump.

The British government is considering a similar fuel tax, and a government feasibility study there has suggested that it would cost more than $1,200 per vehicle to implement the system, including the cost of the GPS units in vehicles and the infrastructure to collect the tax.

But the capabilities of GPS units go well beyond reporting where a vehicle is. Among other things, they also collect data on its speed, which has obvious implications.

A few years ago, a rental-car company in Connecticut decided to take advantage of that capability by installing GPS devices in its cars and assessing a $150 penalty on drivers if the device showed they had been speeding. The practice only ended when the state attorney general said that the company couldn’t impose the penalty.

But that hasn’t stopped other companies from setting prices based on driving data from their customers. Currently, for instance, Progressive’s TripSense program, a voluntary pricing plan available to drivers in Michigan, Minnesota and Oregon, monitors when they use their cars and how fast they’re going. The company then computes insurance discounts for those who do most of their driving during low-risk hours of the day and spend less then one-tenth of 1 percent of their driving time over 75 mph.

TripSense gets its information from a device that plugs into the dataport for the car’s engine computer. It isn’t a GPS, but it uses the vehicle’s speed data with its own internal clock to determine when the car is being driven. It also collects information about acceleration and braking, but according to Progressive, “That is not used to calculate the discount. Progressive collects this data to better understand if it is predictive of future accidents.”

It should be noted, however, that Progressive warns customers their TripSense data would be released if it was subpoenaed by a court.

A company in England is trying a similar type of insurance pricing there.

Meanwhile, millions of drivers already have full GPS units in their cars—even if they don’t know it.

For instance, the OnStar system in GM cars combines a cellphone with a GPS device, all of which can be turned on by the driver or triggered automatically in a crash.

OnStar says it doesn’t continuously track its customers. It only locates a car when the system senses it’s been in a crash, when the airbag is deployed or when the OnStar equipment gets data updates. Of course, the company also notes that it will locate a car when ordered to by a court.

Don’t own an OnStar-equipped vehicle? You’re still carrying around a GPS locator every time you bring your cellphone with you on a trip.

Since 2005, nearly all cellphones have been equipped with GPS technology, required by law so that police can locate you when you call 911 in an emergency. Again, those phones are not currently set up to track your position continuously, but if the technology exists, there’s the potential for someone to use it.


The Big-Brother Scenario
So let’s say you’re a lawmaker interested in using all this technology to the fullest. What could you do to control the behavior of drivers and riders?

Plenty.

At the simplest level, you could do what one lawmaker in Texas proposed recently. He suggested inserting radio frequency identification (RFID) chips into vehicle registration tags. The chips would contain information about the licensing and insurance status of the vehicle.

That Texas proposal would have given police the authority to use RFID readers—like the units that are part of the EZ-Pass systems on many toll roads—to check vehicles on the road. And if you passed one of these checkpoints in an uninsured vehicle, a $250 ticket would arrive in the mail.

That plan died in the Texas Legislature, but it’s an example of the sort of thing public officials are considering. And that just scratches the surface.

Imagine mandatory EDRs connected to GPS units. They could store every detail of your route and your speed until you pass a bank of sensors connected to a centralized traffic-control computer, which would read the accumulated data.

The computer could compare your route and speed information to speed limits on the roads you used and find out that you’d gone a little too fast at some point. Potentially, it could also pinpoint an illegal U-turn you’d made when no one was watching. Either way, you’d get a ticket from the local police, or an automatic surcharge from your insurance company—or both.

But why just ticket people who violate traffic laws? Why not prevent them from breaking it to begin with?

That, too, is under consideration.

Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and other European Union countries are researching Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) systems that would warn riders and drivers when they exceed the speed limit, and could even slow a vehicle automatically.

British officials just completed a five-year study of the system, and press reports indicate that members of Parliament are taking a hard look at the research with an eye on putting it into practice.

The British system uses GPS technology and a base map to track how fast a vehicle is going and the speed limit on the road it’s traveling.

A demonstration of the system on a motorcycle showed that when the bike nudged over the speed limit, the rider got two beeps as a warning. When the bike exceeded the limit by 5 mph, the seat started to vibrate.

And if the rider didn’t heed that second warning, then the ISA system took over, slowing the bike down to the speed limit.


The Bottom Line
OK, let’s separate out the reality from the tin-foil hat speculation.

Clearly, even though the technology is available, we’re not on the verge of having every moment of our riding controlled anytime soon. But smaller steps are definitely possible.

For instance, the British House of Commons Transport Committee recently issued a report suggesting that a much simpler technology—top-speed limiters—be required on new bikes.

“Motorcycle accident rates are far too high. They have been for 10 years. It is time to consider radical action to tackle this problem,” the report said.

Several years ago, the European Commission went down a similar path when it proposed a 100-horsepower limit on motorcycles. But that measure wasn’t adopted in part because officials couldn’t prove that the restriction would actually reduce motorcycling fatalities.

Now, it looks as though European lawmakers will be having that debate all over again. And it could lead to discussions of more sophisticated forms of vehicle control.

Those discussions could have a direct impact on American motorcyclists, says Edward Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations. He notes that the U.S. is part of a group called the United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which is designed to open up the world market by letting manufacturers build one vehicle that can be sold anywhere. And that, warns Moreland, means regulations adopted in Europe could affect riders in America.

“We need to make sure that vehicle standards imposed in the U.S. are appropriate for U.S. riders and riding,” Moreland says. “The traffic environment in Europe is very different from the U.S., and what works there doesn’t necessarily work here.”

© 2007, American Motorcyclist Association
June 2007 Index

Vegas man paints car like police cruiser

LAS VEGAS, N.M. - Jessie Vigil's black-and-white car sports a red-and-blue emergency bar across the top and the word "police" painted on the doors. Vigil, however, isn't a cop. Law enforcement agencies say what he's done with his car isn't illegal as long as he doesn't act like a police officer.

He started decorating his 2007 Ford Mustang last summer to look like the police cruiser in the "Transformers" movie because his 7-year-old son, Thomas, was fond of the film.

"My intent was to re-create the movie car," said Vigil, a 35-year-old disabled veteran from the war in Iraq. "When I came back from Iraq, I tried to spoil him. I wasn't the best dad before."

He said he called the district attorney's office beforehand and spoke to Chief Deputy District Attorney Joe Ulibarri, who tried to discourage his decorating scheme but couldn't find anything in the law that would stop Vigil as long as he didn't impersonate an officer.

Ulibarri said a state law prevents people from mimicking state police cars, which are painted black and white. But he also said the state police sell their old cars to private citizens without changing the colors.

"Are we violating our own law by not repainting them?" he asked.

He called the state law vague, and noted that normal state police cars aren't Mustangs.

"I don't think this guy has any intent to mimic a state police officer," Ulibarri said. "I'm not hearing that he is causing a problem and arresting people."



A close look shows Vigil's car isn't a police cruiser. Instead of the familiar slogan "To protect and serve," it carries a motto: "To punish and enslave" on the side. Instead of telling people to dial 911 for emergencies, the Mustang advises them to "dial 411 for theater information."

He originally marked his car, "Transformers police" but later changed it to just "police." He also added what appears to be a bar of emergency lights, but said they're not actual lights.

Vigil acknowledged people have mixed feelings about his car.

State police Capt. Craig Martin said the agency is "concerned for the safety of people who think he is an officer and think they may get help from him.

"People around town know who he is, but not those people on the interstate."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080313/ap_on_fe_st/odd_faux_cruiser

800 Small Dogs Seized From Ariz. Home

TUCSON, Ariz. — About 800 small dogs, including Chihuahuas, terriers and Pomeranians, were seized from a triple-wide mobile home whose occupants were overwhelmed trying to care for the animals, authorities said Wednesday.

Pima County sheriff's deputies and animal welfare officials who removed the dogs also found 82 caged parrots in the home in a rural area northwest of Tucson.

Some dogs were pregnant and giving birth as they were taken to shelters in Tucson, said Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. Ninety-six dogs were taken from the house Monday and another 700 on Wednesday, she said.

"The home was definitely in very bad condition, urine and feces all over the home, in the kitchen and bedroom, with a very strong odor," she said. "Obviously, 800 dogs in a triple-wide mobile home, they were packed in there. That being said, they were in pretty good shape."

The elderly owners, who have not been identified, were apparently overwhelmed but have cooperated with authorities, sheriff's Sgt. James Ogden said. No charges have been filed, but authorities continue to investigate.

The animals appeared to have had enough food, but a few were missing paws — some from having been attacked by other animals, others apparently having caught their feet in fencing outside, Rose said.

The breeds included Chinese cresteds and Lhasa apsos. The owners were breeding and offering the dogs for sale, Rose said, but she described it as a hoarding case, in which elderly people sometimes feel no one else can give their animals a good home and won't part with them.

Deputies were alerted this month after a woman who bought a Chihuahua at the home reported the conditions, Ogden said.

The dogs living inside the house apparently had free run of the premises, Ogden said. Others were found in other structures on the property.

Ogden described the living conditions as "horrible, filth everywhere ... probably one of the worst (situations) I've ever seen."

The animals will be offered for adoption soon, Rose said, adding that a rescue group from Phoenix had taken 100 of the dogs.

Source: http://www.dailysentinel.com/hp/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Dogs_Seized.html

Security camera can 'see' under clothes

March 10, 2008 - 12:35PM


A British company has developed a camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25 metres away in what could be a breakthrough for the security industry.

The T5000 camera, created by a company called ThruVision, uses what it calls "passive imaging technology" to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays - known as Terahertz or T-rays - that they emit.

The high-powered camera can detect hidden objects from up to 25 metres away and is effective even when people are moving.

It does not reveal physical body details and the screening is harmless, the company says.

The technology, which has military and civilian applications and could be used in crowded airports, shopping malls or sporting events, will be unveiled at a scientific development exhibition sponsored by Britain's Home Office on March 12-13.

"Acts of terrorism have shaken the world in recent years and security precautions have been tightened globally," said Clive Beattie, the chief executive of ThruVision.

"The ability to see both metallic and non-metallic items on people out to 25 metres is certainly a key capability that will enhance any comprehensive security system."

While the technology may enhance detection, it may also increase concerns that Britain is becoming a surveillance society, with hundreds of thousands of closed-circuit television cameras already monitoring people countrywide every day.

ThruVision came up with the technology for the T5000 in collaboration with the European Space Agency and from studying research by astronomers into dying stars.

The technology works on the basis that all people and objects emit low levels of electromagnetic radiation. Terahertz rays lie somewhere between infrared and microwaves on the electromagnetic spectrum and travel through clouds and walls.

Depending on the material, the signature of the wave is different, so that explosives can be distinguished from a block of clay and cocaine is different from a bag of flour.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/security-camera-can-see-under-clothes/2008/03/10/1204998334575.html

Japan launches high-speed communications satellite

Japan's space agency on Saturday launched an experimental communications satellite to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.

The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the satellite, Kizuna, was launched from the southern island of Tanegashima, according to a live internet broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA.

The satellite, equipped with two large multi-beam antennas, separated from the rocket and successfully entered its intended orbit 280 kilometres from Earth, JAXA said in a statement.

The agency said it hoped to enable data transmission of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second at a low cost across Japan and in 19 different places in Southeast Asia through Kizuna, which JAXA developed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Japan has yet to join the lucrative international satellite market, and Kizuna, which should be in operation for five years, is not intended for commercial use. Its large H-2A rocket is one of the most advanced and reliable in the world, and Saturday's was its eighth straight successful launch.

Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 and has achieved several major scientific coups in space, including launching a probe that collected samples from an asteroid.


Japan's space agency on Saturday launched an experimental communications satellite to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.

The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the satellite, Kizuna, was launched from the southern island of Tanegashima, according to a live internet broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA.

A rocket carrying the satellite lifts off from its launch pad on the island of Tanagashima on Saturday.
(Kyodo News/Associated Press) The satellite, equipped with two large multi-beam antennas, separated from the rocket and successfully entered its intended orbit 280 kilometres from Earth, JAXA said in a statement.

The agency said it hoped to enable data transmission of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second at a low cost across Japan and in 19 different places in Southeast Asia through Kizuna, which JAXA developed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Japan has yet to join the lucrative international satellite market, and Kizuna, which should be in operation for five years, is not intended for commercial use. Its large H-2A rocket is one of the most advanced and reliable in the world, and Saturday's was its eighth straight successful launch.

Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 and has achieved several major scientific coups in space, including launching a probe that collected samples from an asteroid.

Continue Article

The country is racing to catch up with regional rival China, which has put astronauts in space twice since 2003, and was the third country to send a human into orbit after Russia and the United States.

Japan has since announced plans to send its first astronauts into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025.

In February 2007, the agency launched its fourth intelligence-gathering satellite amid concerns over neighbouring North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs.


Source: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/02/23/japan-satellite.html

Lunar eclipse to occur Wednesday night

LOS ANGELES - The last total lunar eclipse until 2010 occurs Wednesday night, with cameo appearances by Saturn and the bright star Regulus on either side of the veiled full moon.

Skywatchers viewing through a telescope will have the added treat of seeing Saturn's handsome rings.

Weather permitting, the total eclipse can be seen from North and South America. People in Europe and Africa will be able to see it high in the sky before dawn on Thursday.

As the moonlight dims — it won't go totally dark — Saturn and Regulus will pop out and sandwich the moon. Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo.

Jack Horkheimer, host of the PBS show "Star Gazer," called the event "the moon, the lord of the rings and heart of the lion eclipse."

Wednesday's event will be the last total lunar eclipse until Dec. 20, 2010. Last year there were two.

The weather could be a spoiler for many in the United States. Cloudy skies are expected for most of the Western states with a chance of snow from the heartland to the East Coast, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service.

"It looks like it's going to be a hard one to spot," Seto said.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon passes into Earth's shadow and is blocked from the sun's rays that normally illuminate it. During an eclipse, the sun, Earth and moon line up, leaving a darkened moon visible to observers on the night side of the planet.

The moon doesn't go black because indirect sunlight still reaches it after passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Since the atmosphere filters out blue light, the indirect light that reaches the moon transforms it into a reddish or orange tinge, depending on how much dust and cloud cover are in the atmosphere at the time.

Wednesday's total eclipse phase will last nearly an hour. Earth's shadow is expected to blot out the moon beginning around 7 p.m. on the West Coast and 10 p.m. on the East Coast. West Coast skygazers will miss the start of the eclipse because it occurs before the moon rises.

Unlike solar eclipses which require protective eyewear, lunar eclipses are safe to view with the naked eye.

Later this year, in August, there will be a total solar eclipse and a partial lunar eclipse.


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080220/ap_on_sc/lunar_eclipse

Malicious programs hit new high

The number of malicious programs found online has reached an unprecedented high, say security firms.

Reports vary but some estimates suggest there were five times as many variants of malicious programs in circulation in 2007 compared to 2006.

Security company Panda Software said it was getting more than 3,000 novel samples of so called malware every day.

Criminals pump out variants to fool anti-virus programs that work, in part, by spotting common characteristics.

Threat landscape

Security software testing organisation AV Test reported that it saw 5.49 million unique samples of malicious software in 2007 - five times more than the 972,606 it saw in 2006.

AV Test reached its total by analysing malicious programs and generating a digital fingerprint for each unique sample.

The organisation said the different ways malware can be packaged will mean some duplication in its figures, but the broad trend showed a steep rise.

The organisation uses the samples to test security programs to see how many they can spot and stop.

Panda Software said the number of malicious samples it received in 2007 was up ten fold on 2006. In a statement it said the rise represented a "malware epidemic".

Finnish security firm F-Secure said it had seen a doubling in the number of pieces of malware it detected in 2007 compared to 2006.

Most of the malicious programs detected by these security organisations are aimed at the various versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system.

The vast majority of these unique malicious programs will be made up of elements from older viruses that have been scrambled to look fresh.

"It started about nine months ago, in early 2007, we saw massive surges of new variants," said Gerhard Eschelbeck, chief technology officer at anti-spyware firm Webroot.

"There are days when we see 1,000 or more new samples," he said.

"It's a low-effort high-frequency type threat," he said. "There's no completely ground-breaking new stuff out there."

He added that hi-tech criminals were adopting several tactics to avoid being spotted by anti-virus programs which try to spot the "signature" of each malicious program they know about.

"Anti-virus relies on customers to submit samples," said Mr Eschelbeck, "but with spyware you typically do not get samples because your customers do not know they are infected."

Increasingly, security firms have turned to new techniques to combat the rise in malware variants. Some use heuristics, or rules of thumb, to spot programs that are similar rather than identical to the ones they have seen before.

Others are using behaviour blockers that shut down any program that shows malicious intent.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7232752.stm

Obesity 'may be largely genetic'

Becoming overweight as a child is more likely to be the result of your genes than your lifestyle, claims a study.

University College London researchers examined more than 5,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins.

Their American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study found that differences in body mass index and waist size were 77% governed by genes.

An anti-obesity group said regardless of genes, a balanced diet and exercise were vital to good health.

Children who are overweight are likely to be overweight or obese in adulthood, raising the risk of certain cancers, heart disease, stroke and diabetes later in life.

However, despite the emergence of some possible genes that contribute to obesity, there is still debate as to the extent to which we are pre-programmed to be overweight by our genetic makeup.

The study, from the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre at UCL, goes some way to answering that question.

Background match

Twin studies are a good way to test how far our genes or our environment influence our development.

Identical twins have exactly the same genes, while non-identical twins are genetically different, like brother and sister.

However, because they were born at the same time, and raised in the same household, they can be assumed to have roughly similar upbringing in terms of food.

This allows scientists to measure differences in weight and calculate how much of that difference can be blamed on environment, and how much on genes, even though it doesn't identify individual genes which might be linked to obesity.

They worked out that the effect of a bad environment was far less marked than the effect of a child's genes.

Professor Jane Wardle, who led the study, said: "It is wrong to place all the blame for a child's excessive weight gain on the parents - it is more likely to be due to the child's genetic susceptibility.

"These results do not mean that a child with a high complement of susceptibility genes will inevitably become overweight, but that their genetic endowment gives them a stronger predisposition."

Exercise call

Tam Fry, from the Child Growth Foundation, said that it was important that parents did not give up on healthy lifestyles.

"The gene pool hasn't changed so dramatically in the last 30 years, at a time when obesity has grown out of sight.

"Even if someone has a gene which predisposes them to obesity, it doesn't mean they will become obese if they work hard to eat healthily, and take more exercise to burn off those calories."

Sara Hiom, from Cancer Research UK, said that parents of children showing early weight gain should have additional support to keep them healthy.

"We know that obesity is an important risk factor for a number of cancers so it is important for us all to do what we can to reduce our risk of the disease by eating healthily and maintaining an active lifestyle."

In a separate piece of research, US scientists said they had found clear signs that obesity was "hard-wired" into the brain at birth.

Differences in the brains of obesity-prone rats could be spotted just weeks after birth, the journal Cell Metabolism reported.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7230065.stm

Reuters "Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

"We didn't realize we would take so much in and there were that many people traveling or having euros to bring in. But some days, you'd be surprised at how many euros you get," Chu said.

"Now we have to get familiar with other currencies and the (British) pound and the Canadian dollars we take," he said.

While shops in many U.S. towns on the Canadian border have long accepted Canadian currency and some stores on the Texas-Mexico border take pesos, the acceptance of foreign money in Manhattan was unheard of until recently.

Not far from Chu's downtown wine emporium, Billy Leroy of Billy's Antiques & Props said the vast numbers of Europeans shopping in the neighborhood got him thinking, "My God, I should take euros in at the store."

Leroy doesn't even bother to exchange them.

"I'm happy if I take in 200 euros, because what I do is keep them," he said. "So when I go back to Paris, I don't have to go through the nightmare of going to an exchange place."

(Reporting by Angela Moore, writing by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080206/us_nm/newyork_euros_dc

Deep stimulation 'boosts memory'

Electrical stimulation of areas deep within the brain could improve memory, early research suggests.

A team of doctors in Canada stumbled upon the finding while attempting to treat a morbidly obese man through deep brain stimulation (DBS).

The electrical stimulation caused the patient to experience vivid memories.

The findings, reported in the Annals of Neurology, potentially pave the way for electrical stimulation to treat disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

"We hope it might provide benefit to patients with memory disorders" -- Andres Lozano, Toronto Western Hospital

Lead researcher Professor Andres Lozano, of the Toronto Western Hospital, said: "This is a single case that was totally unexpected.

"We knew immediately this was important. We are sufficiently intrigued to see if this could help people with memory disorders."

The team had been trying to help a 50-year-old obese man with type 2 diabetes and sleeping disorders who had failed to respond to diet, medications and psychological help.

He had refused gastric surgery, and doctors decided deep brain stimulation, although experimental, was his best option.


DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION
* Electrodes are implanted in the brain under local anaesthesia, with the patient awake so their responses can be monitored
* The electrodes are stimulated by a "pacemaker" stitched into the chest
It has been used for more than a decade to treat tremor, and more recently to treat Parkinson's disease, chronic pain and depression
* Side effects can include apathy, hallucinations, depression, and even compulsive gambling - but often they are temporary


It has been found to have an impact on appetite in animal tests, but has not been widely tested as a treatment for obesity in humans.

However, it has been used to treat Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, severe cluster headaches and even depression with some success.

The technique involves implanting electrodes into the brain: in this case into an area in the limbic system called the hypothalamus, which is thought to control the appetite.

When the electrodes were stimulated by electrical impulses the patient began to experience feelings of deja vu.

He then had a sudden perception of being in a park with friends.

He felt younger, thought he was around 20-years-old, and his girlfriend of the time was there. He was an observer, and saw the scene in colour.

As the intensity of the stimulation increased, details in the scene became more vivid.

Memory tests

Following surgery, the patient recovered for two months. But later when the electrodes were stimulated for a second time, he experienced a similar effect.

After three weeks of constant electrical stimulation the patient performed better in memory tests than he had previously done.

A year later he again performed well in memory tests when the electrodes were stimulated, but less well when they were switched off.

The results suggest it might be possible to use deep brain stimulation directly to boost memory.

"We hopefully have found a circuit in the brain which can be modulated by stimulation, and which might provide benefit to patients with memory disorders," said Professor Lozano.

Professor Lozano is now leading a pilot study into whether deep brain stimulation can help people with early Alzheimer's disease. They are initially testing six patients.

Susanne Sorensen, of the Alzheimer's Society, said: "As it is difficult to experiment on the living human brain, big leaps in understanding have occasionally been made from unexpected results when treating something unrelated or observations from rare genetic diseases and unusual lesions.

"The observations of memories recovery made during this attempt to treat extreme obesity, could be just such a 'stroke of luck'."

Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, welcomed the move but said further work was clearly needed.

She said: "It will be interesting to see whether this method offers any benefit to people with Alzheimer's.

"With the number of people with Alzheimer's forecast to double within a generation, we urgently need to find ways to tackle this awful disease, but research is hugely under-funded."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7213972.stm

Good grades pay off — literally

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

Teachers have long said that success is its own reward. But these days, some students are finding that good grades can bring them cash and luxury gifts.

In at least a dozen states this school year, students who bring home top marks can expect more than just gratitude. Examples:

•Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso last week promised to spend more than $935,000 to give high school students as much as $110 each to improve their scores on state graduation exams.

•In New York City, about 9,000 fourth- and seventh-graders in 60 schools are eligible to win as much as $500 for improving their scores on the city's English and math tests, given throughout the school year.

•In suburban Atlanta, a pair of schools last week kicked off a program that will pay 8th- and 11th-grade students $8 an hour for a 15-week "Learn & Earn" after-school study program (the federal minimum wage is currently $5.85).

In most cases, the efforts are funded privately through corporate or philanthropic donors.

The most ambitious experiment began in September, when seven states — Arkansas, Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington — won spots in an Exxon/Mobil-funded program that, in most cases, pays students $100 for each passing grade on advanced placement (AP) college-prep exams.

It's an effort to get low-income and minority students interested in the courses, says Tommie Sue Anthony, president of the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science. "We still have students who are not sure of the value, who are not willing to take the courses," she says. "Probably the incentives will make a difference with those students."

Gregg Fleisher of the National Math and Science Initiative, which runs the seven-state program, says the effort is modeled on a program adopted by Dallas in the 1995-96 school year that saw AP course-taking jump substantially. That program is now statewide.

While many educators would blanch at offering kids cash for good grades, Fleisher and others say the idea is simple: "It's an incentive to get them to basically make the right decision and choose a more rigorous class," he says. "This teaches them that if they work at something very hard and have a lot of support, they can do something they didn't think they could do."

An analysis of the Texas program last month by Cornell economist C. Kirabo Jackson found that it linked to a 30% rise in the number of students with high SAT and ACT scores and an 8% rise in college-going students.

But a few critics say the payouts amount to little more than bribes, undermining kids' motivation to do high-quality work when they're not being paid.

"It's a strategy that helps only around the edges," says Thomas Toch of the Education Sector, a Washington think tank. Most students in AP classes "are already internally motivated, and the opportunity to earn college credits for passing AP tests is a bigger motivator than small cash awards."

Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a watchdog group, is more blunt: "Bribing kids for higher test scores — or paying teachers bounties for their students' work — is similar to giving them steroids," he says. "Short-term performance might improve but the long-term effects can be very damaging."

At Northeast Health Science Magnet High School in Macon, Ga., principal Sam Scavella says he's trying lots of different incentives for doing the right thing. If students attend Saturday study sessions, they qualify for an iPod, movie tickets or a dinner for two, among other prizes.

Jessie Humphrey, a sophomore at Northeast, is one of 25 students who made the school's All-A Honor Roll. That entitled her to a slot in a special drawing Thursday. When it was over, she walked away with a 26-inch, flat-screen television set, which now sits in her room.

An honor roll student most years, Jessie, 15, says she usually pulls As and Bs, but this semester, "I got lucky and got all As."

Scavella says the incentives seem to be making a difference — only 10 students made the All-A Honor Roll this time last year.

"We have to reward the behavior we expect," he says. "I don't see it as a way of paying students to do well — it's a reward. If you do well in school, then life will pay you well. If you do well in school , you can afford a lifestyle that will pay you well."

The two-year New York City experiment, begun last September, essentially pays students monthly to do their best on skills tests. If it seems like an economist's dream, that's because it's the brainchild of wunderkind Harvard economist Roland Fryer, who also serves as the schools' chief equality officer. He came up with the idea while trying to figure out how to make school "tangible" for disadvantaged kids with few successful role models. "I just thought that giving them some short-term incentives to do what's in their long-term best interests would be a good way to go."

While teachers talk about success, he says, it's not enough to tell a kid that, in the long term, hard work will pay off. "We're asking them to look down a path that they have probably never seen anyone go down … and then to have the wisdom and the fortitude to wait for their reward."


Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-27-grades_N.htm

"Technology overload" can ruin relationships

Wed Jan 23, 4:28 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Technology might be just as addictive as alcohol and drugs and could also wreak havoc with personal and work relationships, a leading expert said.

John O'Neill, the director of addictions services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas refers to it as "technology overload" when he sees addiction-like behavior in his patients using cell phones or emails.

"I think they share some of the same components as people who become addicted to alcohol and drugs in that we start to see that someone cannot really put it down and cannot stop the use of it even when there are some consequences," he said in a telephone interview.

"We can become overloaded by technology and suffer consequences in our relationships," he added.

O'Neill's observations are backed up by psychologists who have classified technology addiction as an impulse disorder that can be as socially damaging as alcoholism, gambling and drug addiction.

The Internet/Computer Addiction Services in Redmond, Washington, which runs treatment programs and provides therapy, estimate that 6 to 10 percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in the United States have a dependency on technology.

O'Neill said it's all about teaching people how to manage their behavior in a healthy way.

"How do you learn to set limits, develop boundaries, how do you make some sense out of what does it mean to healthily use the technology, or to healthily enter into a relationship with someone," O'Neill said.

He added that warning signs that someone may be sliding into an unhealthy relationship with technology include using text messages, email and voice mail when face-to-face interaction would be more appropriate, or limiting time with friends and family to tend to your email, return phone calls or to surf the Internet.

An inability to leave home without a cell phone, to relax without constantly checking email or to stop using the Internet are also worrying signs.

When the Internet becomes a more powerful draw than spending time with family or friends, or when someone pays more attention to gadgets than what is happening in real life are more danger signs.

But O'Neill said there is no reason to become alarmed about daily use of texting or emails.

"We've spent a lot of time and a lot of years talking about what does it mean to healthily use something, what does it mean to healthily drink a glass or two of wine as opposed to drinking a bottle.

"I think some people are drinking a bottle of technology and some people are able to drink a glass."

The Menninger Clinic is an international specialty psychiatric center that provides treatment, research and education.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080123/lf_nm_life/gadgets_dc_3;_ylt=AtQKrNeTCMIm8NQ9fWN8dNLSMZA5

Best Buy Sold Infected Digital Picture Frames

By GREGG KEIZER, Computerworld, IDG
Published: January 23, 2008

Best Buy Co. Inc. sold digital picture frames during the holidays that harbored malicious code able to spread to any connected Windows PC, the big box retailer has confirmed. It is not recalling the frames, however.

What Best Buy called "a limited number" of the 10.4-in. digital frames sold under its in-house Insignia brand were "contaminated with a computer virus during the manufacturing process," according to a notice posted on the Insignia site last weekend. The frame which went by the part number NS-DPF10A has been discontinued, and all remaining inventory pulled, Best Buy added.

But that didn't happen until after some of pre-infected frames were sold to customers.

Best Buy did not specify the number of virus-loaded frames that had ended up in customers' hands, but said in a second notice posted today that it is continuing to investigate and is "connecting with our customers who may have been impacted."

The malware packed with the frame is an older virus that Best Buy claimed would be easily detected by any up-to-date anti-virus software. It did not, however, specify the malware or narrow the scope of the danger by confirming that it was say, a non-replicating Trojan rather than a self-propagating worm.

Only Windows PCs are vulnerable, said Best Buy's notices, and then only if the picture frame were to be connected to the computer via the included USB cable. Frames like digital cameras are designed to connect to PCs so that images can be downloaded from the machine to the frame.

Best Buy recommended users running a current anti-virus program plug the frame into the PC so that the security software can scan the frame and delete the malware. Other customers should call a special toll-free number for help.

"We apologize for the inconvenience that has been caused as a result of this incident," said Best Buy.

Best Buy's public relations team did not respond to a call for comment.

The frame snafu is only the latest in a tradition of factory-infected hardware. Last November, Seagate Technology LLC admitted that an unknown number of its 500GB Maxtor Basics 3200 hard drives left an Asian manufacturing plant with Trojan horses designed to steal online gaming passwords. The year before that, Apple Inc. had to warn Windows users that some of its iPod music players had been infected with a factory virus.

At the time, an Apple vice president made light of the iPod incident, telling Macworld UK: "We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573D9007CF01E.html?em&ex=1201323600&en=0f4358ac4c5481a2&ei=5087%0A

Mass. clinic launches fertility test that measures egg supply

Mass. clinic launches fertility test that measures egg supply
Boston Business Journal
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - 9:32 AM EST



A Massachusetts clinic claims it will be the first in the northeast to offer a fertility test that measures how many eggs a woman has.

Fertility center Boston IVF of Waltham, Mass., said on Tuesday that it will begin to sell Repromedix's Plan Ahead test, a blood test that uses a variety of elements to measure a woman's egg supply. The test is intended to help women who are planning to have children after their late twenties, by measuring three ovary-related hormones.

A woman's ability to have children by natural conception depends on having enough eggs, a supply of which declines as a woman ages.

Repromedix is also Massachusetts-based; Its headquarters are in Woburn.

Boston IVF is one of a select number of fertility centers who will offer the $350 test. It's expected to launch in major markets through 2008.


Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/01/21/daily17.html

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