>Flash cookies: What’s new with online privacy

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Web site hosts and advertisers do not like relying on HTTP cookies. Users have figured out how to avoid them. According to Bruce Schneier, Web site developers now have a better way. It’s still considered a cookie, yet it’s different.LSO, a bigger better cookieLocal Shared Object LSO or Flash cookie, like the HTTP cookie, is a way of storing information about us and tracking our movement around the Internet. Some other things I learned: Flash cookies can hold a lot more data, up to 100 Kilobytes. A standard HTTP cookie is only 4 Kilobytes. Flash cookies have no expiration date by default. Flash cookies are stored in different locations, making them difficult to find.YouTube testLSOs are also hard to get rid of. Here is a test proving that. Go to YouTube, open a video, and change the volume. Delete all cookies and close the Web browser. Reopen the Web browser and play the same video. Notice that the volume did not return to the default setting. Thank a Flash cookie for that.Not many know about Flash cookies and that is a problem. It puts people who configure their Web browser to control cookies under a false sense of security. As shown earlier, privacy controls have no effect on Flash cookies.Where are they storedFlash cookies use the extension .sol. Knowing that, I still wasn’t able to find any on my computer. Thanks to Google uses Flash cookies, I determined the only way you can access information about resident Flash cookies is by going to Flash Player’s Web site.

Solution: Use Firefox with this add in:

BetterPrivacy is a Super Cookie Safeguard which protects from usually not deletable LSO’s. It blocks longterm tracking on Google, YouTube Ebay and many other domains.

>Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power In Trees

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You’ve heard about flower power. What about tree power? It turns out that it’s there, in small but measurable quantities. There’s enough power in trees for University of Washington researchers to run an electronic circuit, according to results to be published in an upcoming issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Transactions on Nanotechnology.

“As far as we know this is the first peer-reviewed paper of someone powering something entirely by sticking electrodes into a tree,” said co-author Babak Parviz, a UW associate professor of electrical engineering.

A study last year from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that plants generate a voltage of up to 200 millivolts when one electrode is placed in a plant and the other in the surrounding soil. Those researchers have since started a company developing forest sensors that exploit this new power source.

The UW team sought to further academic research in the field of tree power by building circuits to run off that energy. They successfully ran a circuit solely off tree power for the first time.

Co-author Carlton Himes, a UW undergraduate student, spent last summer exploring likely sites. Hooking nails to trees and connecting a voltmeter, he found that bigleaf maples, common on the UW campus, generate a steady voltage of up to a few hundred millivolts.

The UW team next built a device that could run on the available power. Co-author Brian Otis, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering, led the development of a boost converter, a device that takes a low incoming voltage and stores it to produce a greater output. His team’s custom boost converter works for input voltages of as little as 20 millivolts (a millivolt is one-thousandth of a volt), an input voltage lower than any existing such device. It produces an output voltage of 1.1 volts, enough to run low-power sensors.

via Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power In Trees.

>Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power In Trees

>

You’ve heard about flower power. What about tree power? It turns out that it’s there, in small but measurable quantities. There’s enough power in trees for University of Washington researchers to run an electronic circuit, according to results to be published in an upcoming issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Transactions on Nanotechnology.

“As far as we know this is the first peer-reviewed paper of someone powering something entirely by sticking electrodes into a tree,” said co-author Babak Parviz, a UW associate professor of electrical engineering.

A study last year from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that plants generate a voltage of up to 200 millivolts when one electrode is placed in a plant and the other in the surrounding soil. Those researchers have since started a company developing forest sensors that exploit this new power source.

The UW team sought to further academic research in the field of tree power by building circuits to run off that energy. They successfully ran a circuit solely off tree power for the first time.

Co-author Carlton Himes, a UW undergraduate student, spent last summer exploring likely sites. Hooking nails to trees and connecting a voltmeter, he found that bigleaf maples, common on the UW campus, generate a steady voltage of up to a few hundred millivolts.

The UW team next built a device that could run on the available power. Co-author Brian Otis, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering, led the development of a boost converter, a device that takes a low incoming voltage and stores it to produce a greater output. His team’s custom boost converter works for input voltages of as little as 20 millivolts (a millivolt is one-thousandth of a volt), an input voltage lower than any existing such device. It produces an output voltage of 1.1 volts, enough to run low-power sensors.

via Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power In Trees.

>World will end today… it is 9/9/09

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If you’re reading this, then it’s pretty safe to say that he world hasn’t ended.

Today, the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year, was heralded by some doomsayers as the end of the planet.

Over the past few weeks, web chatrooms devoted to alien conspiracies, doomsday cults and numerology – the belief that numbers have mystical significance – have been buzzing with talk of 09/09/09.

Some warned of an outbreak of killer swine flu. Others that the world would be sucked into a black hole created by the Cern particle collider in Switzerland.

Instead, the most exciting thing likely to happen today is the release of a Beatles computer game and the announcement of a new Apple iPod.

It’s been a miserable few years for fans of Armageddon dates. The millennium passed without a single horseman of the apocalypse, while 06/06/06 turned out to be a rather uneventful Tuesday.

Believers had high hopes for 09/09/09, particularly in the UK where 999 is the emergency phone number.

via World will end today… (Well it is 9/9/09 – and the doom-mongers are predicting a disaster) | Mail Online.

>Flips, Flops And Cartwheels: Gecko Tail Has A Mind Of Its Own, Scientists Discover

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Geckos and other lizards have long been known for their incredible ability to shed their tails as a decoy for predators, but little is known about the movements and what controls the tail once it separates from the lizard’s body.

Anthony Russell of the University of Calgary and Tim Higham of Clemson University in South Carolina are closer to solving this mystery as outlined in a paper they co-authored published in the journal Biology Letters.

The scientists demonstrate that tails exhibit not only rhythmic but also complex movements, including flips, jumps and lunges, after the tails are shed. Although one previous study has looked at movement of the tail after it is severed, no study up to this point has quantified movement patterns of the tail by examining the relationship between such patterns and muscular activity.

Anthony Russell of the University of Calgary and Tim Higham of Clemson University in South Carolina are closer to solving this mystery as outlined in a paper they co-authored published in the journal Biology Letters.

The scientists demonstrate that tails exhibit not only rhythmic but also complex movements, including flips, jumps and lunges, after the tails are shed. Although one previous study has looked at movement of the tail after it is severed, no study up to this point has quantified movement patterns of the tail by examining the relationship between such patterns and muscular activity

… “An intriguing, and as yet unanswered, question is what is the source of the stimulus is that initiates complex movements in the shed tails of leopard geckos,” says Higham. “The most plausible explanation is that the tail relies on sensory feedback from the environment. Sensors on its surface may tell it to jump, pivot or travel in a certain direction.”

via Flips, Flops And Cartwheels: Gecko Tail Has A Mind Of Its Own, Scientists Discover.

>Flips, Flops And Cartwheels: Gecko Tail Has A Mind Of Its Own, Scientists Discover

>

Geckos and other lizards have long been known for their incredible ability to shed their tails as a decoy for predators, but little is known about the movements and what controls the tail once it separates from the lizard’s body.

Anthony Russell of the University of Calgary and Tim Higham of Clemson University in South Carolina are closer to solving this mystery as outlined in a paper they co-authored published in the journal Biology Letters.

The scientists demonstrate that tails exhibit not only rhythmic but also complex movements, including flips, jumps and lunges, after the tails are shed. Although one previous study has looked at movement of the tail after it is severed, no study up to this point has quantified movement patterns of the tail by examining the relationship between such patterns and muscular activity.

Anthony Russell of the University of Calgary and Tim Higham of Clemson University in South Carolina are closer to solving this mystery as outlined in a paper they co-authored published in the journal Biology Letters.

The scientists demonstrate that tails exhibit not only rhythmic but also complex movements, including flips, jumps and lunges, after the tails are shed. Although one previous study has looked at movement of the tail after it is severed, no study up to this point has quantified movement patterns of the tail by examining the relationship between such patterns and muscular activity

… “An intriguing, and as yet unanswered, question is what is the source of the stimulus is that initiates complex movements in the shed tails of leopard geckos,” says Higham. “The most plausible explanation is that the tail relies on sensory feedback from the environment. Sensors on its surface may tell it to jump, pivot or travel in a certain direction.”

via Flips, Flops And Cartwheels: Gecko Tail Has A Mind Of Its Own, Scientists Discover.

>A skull that rewrites the history of man

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The conventional view of human evolution and how early man colonised the world has been thrown into doubt by a series of stunning palaeontological discoveries suggesting that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that suggest a Eurasian chapter in the long evolutionary story of man.

The skulls, jawbones and fragments of limb bones suggest that our ancient human ancestors migrated out of Africa far earlier than previously thought and spent a long evolutionary interlude in Eurasia – before moving back into Africa to complete the story of man.

Experts believe fossilised bones unearthed at the medieval village of Dmanisi in the foothills of the Caucuses, and dated to about 1.8 million years ago, are the oldest indisputable remains of humans discovered outside of Africa.

But what has really excited the researchers is the discovery that these early humans (or “hominins”) are far more primitive-looking than the Homo erectus humans that were, until now, believed to be the first people to migrate out of Africa about 1 million years ago.

The Dmanisi people had brains that were about 40 per cent smaller than those of Homo erectus and they were much shorter in stature than classical H. erectus skeletons, according to Professor David Lordkipanidze, general director of the Georgia National Museum. “Before our findings, the prevailing view was that humans came out of Africa almost 1 million years ago, that they already had sophisticated stone tools, and that their body anatomy was quite advanced in terms of brain capacity and limb proportions. But what we are finding is quite different,” Professor Lordkipanidze said.

“The Dmanisi hominins are the earliest representatives of our own genus – Homo – outside Africa, and they represent the most primitive population of the species Homo erectus to date. They might be ancestral to all later Homo erectus populations, which would suggest a Eurasian origin of Homo erectus.”

Speaking at the British Science Festival in Guildford, where he gave the British Council lecture, Professor Lordkipanidze raised the prospect that Homo erectus may have evolved in Eurasia from the more primitive-looking Dmanisi population and then migrated back to Africa to eventually give rise to our own species, Homo sapiens – modern man.

“The question is whether Homo erectus originated in Africa or Eurasia, and if in Eurasia, did we have vice-versa migration? This idea looked very stupid a few years ago, but today it seems not so stupid,” he told the festival.

The scientists have discovered a total of five skulls and a solitary jawbone. It is clear that they had relatively small brains, almost a third of the size of modern humans. “They are quite small. Their lower limbs are very human and their upper limbs are still quite archaic and they had very primitive stone tools,” Professor Lordkipanidze said. “Their brain capacity is about 600 cubic centimetres. The prevailing view before this discovery was that the humans who first left Africa had a brain size of about 1,000 cubic centimetres.”

The only human fossil to predate the Dmanisi specimens are of an archaic species Homo habilis, or “handy man”, found only in Africa, which used simple stone tools and lived between about 2.5 million and 1.6 million years ago.

“I’d have to say, if we’d found the Dmanisi fossils 40 years ago, they would have been classified as Homo habilis because of the small brain size. Their brow ridges are not as thick as classical Homo erectus, but their teeth are more H. erectus like,” Professor Lordkipanidze said. “All these finds show that the ancestors of these people were much more primitive than we thought. I don’t think that we were so lucky as to have found the first travellers out of Africa. Georgia is the cradle of the first Europeans, I would say,” he told the meeting.

“What we learnt from the Dmanisi fossils is that they are quite small – between 1.44 metres to 1.5 metres tall. What is interesting is that their lower limbs, their tibia bones, are very human-like so it seems they were very good runners,” he said.

He added: “In regards to the question of which came first, enlarged brain size or bipedalism, maybe indirectly this information calls us to think that body anatomy was more important than brain size. While the Dmanisi people were almost modern in their body proportions, and were highly efficient walkers and runners, their arms moved in a different way, and their brains were tiny compared to ours.

“Nevertheless, they were sophisticated tool makers with high social and cognitive skills,” he told the science festival, which is run by the British Science Association.

One of the five skulls is of a person who lost all his or her teeth during their lifetime but had still survived for many years despite being completely toothless. This suggests some kind of social organisation based on mutual care, Professor Lordkipanidze said.

via A skull that rewrites the history of man – Science, News – The Independent.

>’Freak tornado’ kills 14 in Argentina, Brazil

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A violent storm described as a “freak tornado” has shredded hundreds of houses and killed at least 14 people in the southern part of South America, officials said.

Northern Argentina and southern Brazil, and the small countries of Uruguay and Paraguay wedged between them, were hit by a fierce atmospheric mass packing rain, hail and winds over 120 kilometres per hour.

In northeastern Argentina, 10 people died, including seven children, authorities said.

More than 50 others were injured, and trees and power lines were toppled in the towns of Santa Rosa, Tobuna and Pozo Azul, said Ricardo Veselka Corrales, head of the local civil defence office.

Witnesses and local media described the storm as a tornado.

Meteorologists were wary, although the US National Climatic Data Centre said the area is the only place in South America with a likelihood of experiencing the high-speed spinning tubes of destructive wind.

“It could have been a tornado,” said Jorge Leguizamon, of Argentina’s National Meteorological Service.

“The phenomenon still hasn’t been classified, experts will have to evaluate the damage.”

What was clear was that “it’s not normal for this area,” said the provincial minister, Daniel Franco.

“We’ve always had very strong winds and torrential rains here but this was a phenomenon never seen before. Houses were completely destroyed,” he said.

The devastation was “incredible,” said the mayor of San Pedro, Orlando Wolfart, noting that several homes had been wiped from their foundations.

Television images showed a destroyed landscape, with several homes levelled and others still standing but with their roofs ripped off.

In the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, similar devastation occurred from what the region’s civil defence service agreed was “a probable tornado.”

Four people died when winds ravaged 37 towns and villages, knocking over more than 100 homes and blasting others with hail big enough to puncture roofs, it said in a statement.

At least another 64 people were hurt, 40 of whom were hospitalised.

via ‘Freak tornado’ kills 14 in Argentina, Brazil – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

>Camera Snaps ‘Bigfoot’ Photo In Ky. Back Yard … or a bird.

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A Kentucky man said his surveillance camera captured something in his back yard last week, but no one is sure what it is.

Kenny Mahoney had the camera in his yard to capture wildlife photos. It fires when it detects motion.

When he checked the camera over the weekend, he found the usual collection of rabbits, raccoons … and something else.”It looked like it had the outline of a head, and, like, gorilla-type shoulders, and then the arms crossed is what it looks like to me,” Mahoney told WAVE-TV Monday.

Mahoney said he doesn’t think he captured Bigfoot on film. But that doesn’t explain what the camera saw, either. Mahoney said whatever it was smashed down weeds and grass as it passed.

His wife took the photo to a wildlife expert on black bears, who said that whatever it was, it was fur-covered. But she told Mahoney’s wife that she couldn’t say for sure it was a bear, either.

via Camera Snaps ‘Bigfoot’ Photo In Ky. Back Yard – Cincinnati News Story – WLWT Cincinnati.

What if Bigfoot just IS blurry?

Here is the video from CNN:

Most likely to me: a foreshortened bird in flight that is close to the camera:

Comment: … I’ve similar foreshortened birds and animals photoed by game cams. If you look closely…the bird is in front of the yellow flower bush. I think you can see its beak turned to the right also…it’s those black birds seen earlier in the video.

>Obama space panel says moon return plan is a no go

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A White House panel of independent space experts says NASA’s return-to-the-moon plan just won’t fly.

The problem is money. The expert panel estimates it would cost about $3 billion a year beyond NASA’s current $18 billion annual budget.

“Under the budget that was proposed, exploration beyond Earth is not viable,” panel member Edward Crawley, a professor of aeronautics at MIT, told The Associated Press Tuesday.

The report gives options to President Barack Obama, but said NASA’s current plans have to change. Five years ago, then-President George W. Bush proposed returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. To pay for it, he planned on retiring the shuttle next year and shutting down the international space station in 2015.

All those deadlines have to change, the panel said. Space exploration would work better by including other countries and private for-profit firms, the panel concluded.

The panel had previously estimated that the current plan would cost $100 billion in spending to 2020.

Former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern said the report showed the harsh facts that NASA’s space plans had “a mismatch between resources and rhetoric.” Now, he said, Obama faces a choice of “essentially abandoning human spaceflight” or paying the extra money.

The panel, chaired by retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, includes executives, scientists and ex-astronauts. It posted a summary report Tuesday on both White House and NASA web sites.

NASA can’t get beyond low-Earth orbit without spending more, but space travel with astronauts is important, the panel found. That will cost an extra $3 billion a year and is “unquestionably worth it,” Crawley said.

The question is where to go.

The Bush plan was to go to the moon, which would serve as a training ground for flights to Mars. The Augustine panel agreed Mars is the ultimate goal, but said going to the moon first is only one option and not the preferred one. Instead, the panel emphasized what it called a “flexible path” of exploring near-Earth objects such as asteroids, the moons of Mars, and then landing on the moon after other exploration.

“There’s a lot of places in the neighborhood,” Crawley said. “In fact, going to the moon is more difficult than going to a near-Earth object.”

The panel also said the space shuttle should continue flying until early 2011 to finish all its space station work and that it can’t realistically retire by Oct. 1, 2010 as the Bush administration planned.

The panel called “unwise” the Bush plan to shut down the space station in 2015 and steer it into the ocean, after 25 years of construction and only five years of fully operational life. The space station’s life should be extended, the panel said.

via Obama space panel says moon return plan is a no go – Yahoo! News.