Personal RFID firewall, TV as open content platform, Big Apple bans trans fats, open source cell phones…

• 1 – Personal firewall for the RFIDs you carry
  “…a “firewall for RFID tags” — a device that sits on your person and jams the signals from all your personal wireless tags (transit passes, etc), then selectively impersonates them according to rules you set.”
  (tags: tag wireless security prototype privacy concept firewall electronics arphid RFID)
• 2 – Operation Upshot-Knothole
  “Survivors talk about playing in fallout that landed like snow, of sand that melted like glass, of hair that fell out in handfuls…” A Metafilter round-up on the US’s nuclear tests in Utah.
  (tags: cover-up civilians radiation history military Utah tests weapons nuclear government US)
• 3 – Blindsight by Peter Watts
  Niall Harrison gets his teeth into Blindsight and produces a probing review. That one’s going on the wishlist …
  (tags: review book literature novel hard sf scifi fiction science Blindsight Watts Peter)
• 4 – The Ultimate Rejection Letter
  Someone should do a writer’s version of this … via FF&F.
  (tags: humour spoof letter rejection application job)
• 5 – How TV Will Become the Ultimate Open Content Platform
  “As we look ahead – say three years from now – TV viewing will become even more fragmented. But make no mistake, IPTV is going to make television even more relevant in our lives than it is today.” Pretty inevitable, really.
  (tags: programming created peer content marketing advertising definition high IPTV television internet)
• 6 – Spam choking the internet again
  “…spam now accounts for 91% of all email and that over the past 12 months the daily volume of spam has risen by 120%.” No sh*t.
  (tags: filters defeat techniques advanced density increase spam comment email internet)
• 7 – Where The Sidewalk Ends
  “Upending conventional wisdom, advocates of this approach argue that removing road signs, sidewalks, and traffic lights actually slows cars and is safer for pedestrians.” Just crazy enough to work.
  (tags: psychology safety calming traffic slow drivers pedestrians roads planning city space urban)
• 8 – New York eateries must scrap trans fats
  “New York City health authorities voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban the use of artificial cooking oils, known as trans fats, in the city’s eateries.” It’ll be interesting to see if this makes a difference.
  (tags: ban oil cooking artificial fats trans food obesity health York New NY US)
• 9 – What you speak may affect what you hear
  “People perceive different patterns in the same sound sequences depending on their native tongue, researchers have found.”
  (tags: linguistics research cognitive music tone language science)
• 10 – A New Model Nanocar on the Showroom Floor
  “The new car, which includes a light-driven engine, opens the door to future development of more sophisticated nanomachines that could be used, among other things, for targeted drug delivery within the body.”
  (tags: medicine development research technology molecule moving nanocar nanotech)
• 11 – Space Colonization and Existential Risk
  “If all goes well, NASA could have a permanent moon base by 2020. This is hopeful, because it’s a step towards putting our eggs in more than one basket.”
  (tags: survival futurism diaspora risk existential species human orbital Moon Mars colony space)
• 12 – Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects
  “…a fascinating glimpse into how far some parents may go to ensure that their children stay in their world — by intentionally choosing malfunctioning genes that produce disabilities like deafness or dwarfism.”
  (tags: ethics mutations diagnosis children selection defects genetic screening embryo biotech IVF eugenics)
• 13 – There’s Gold In Them There Cell Phones
  The report runs the numbers on the financial value waiting to be extracted from dead mobiles: if all closet-sitting cell phones were recycled, they would yield $314 million worth of metal
  (tags: metals plastics technology components recycling communications cell mobile phone)
• 14 – The Homebrew Mobile Phone Club
  “The first order of business? Developing a completely open source model, called the TuxPhone, which anyone with soldering skills can replicate. DIYers will be able to download the schematic, order the parts for about $400, and assemble one in their own ga
  (tags: Linux communications project design cell source open Club Phone Mobile Homebrew Valley Silicon)
• 15 – Britain gets first on-street electric car chargers
  “Britain’s first on-street charging points for electric cars were unveiled in central London as part of a wider bid to encourage drivers to ditch gas-guzzling vehicles.” A step in the right direction or a canny PR stunt?
  (tags: pollution congestion ecology energy free street point recharge car electric Garden Covent London UK)