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The Zhan

Device Tracks Blood Flow in the Brain - 2 views

www.technologyreview.com/...39313

1.1_reliability_integrity; 1.11_people_machines; 2.4_med_research; 2.6_military

shared by The Zhan on 11 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • A headset ultrasound monitor could make it easier to detect the dangerous aftereffects of brain injuries.
  • The company's monitor consists of a headset that directs an array of ultrasound beams through the head and uses a proprietary algorithm to automatically detect the mid-cerebral artery, one of the major arteries supplying blood to the brain. The device then locks the relevant beam onto the artery and measures its blood flow. A machine attached to the headset gives an index of flow and peak velocity.
  • The Zhan on 11 Jan 12
     
    "A new ultrasound device could make it easier to detect a potentially life-threatening condition". An excellent example of data-logging applied to a practical real-life situation.
  • joey <3 on 11 Jan 12
     
    The invention of this device will drastically improve the monitoring of brain related injuries and in particular the one mentioned in the article - vasospasm. The fact that nearly 50% of soldiers who sustain blast injuries can potentially develop vasospasm is more than enough reason for there to be plenty of funding towards the development of this device. It says in the article that "the company plans to make a more rugged version of its commercial device for the battle field." If the company manages to actually develop this, the amount of soldier deaths in the battle field will decrease as the soldiers will be able to get treatment sooner. Within this development the company could have the data be live streamed to the doctors so that they can analyze the data to see if there is any problem. The data can then be stored so that the patient's development can be recorded. As the device is measuring the blood flow in the brain this could also be used to analyze the soldiers brain whilst on the field. This could contribute to developments in other studies of the brain like post-traumatic stress.
Tranny Franny

BBC News - Backlash over Google move to change privacy settings - 1 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...technology-16720406

1.3_privacy_anonymity 2.1_bus_emp 3.4_internet

shared by Tranny Franny on 26 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The Zhan on 02 Feb 12
     
    The main stakeholder here is the google, youtube, gmail, etc. user. The change in privacy policy settings in the system affects the stakeholder in these ways, as outlined in the article: In "suggesting search queries, or tailoring search results, based on the interests expressed in Google+, Gmail and YouTube" (mining data to provide "ever more targeted adverts"), the results become limited: "something I am interested in this week, I might not be interested in next week. I use Google's facilities as both a private individual and in my professional life. Which bit are they going to give back to me?" There is no opt-out alternative to the changes in the system. "Google has become a way of life for some people. They can't do without it even if they don't like the direction it is going in". The simplification of policies could lead to graver problems. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/27/tech/web/google-privacy-clarified/index.html
Jorge F1

DNA link led to sex attack arrest - 4 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...uk-england-essex-15923444

1.2_security 2.6_law_control 3.7_databases

shared by Jorge F1 on 05 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Jorge F1 on 05 Jan 12
     
    The national DNA database proved "uniquely crucial" in an investigation that led to the conviction of a sex attacker in Essex. But police fear the service that helped to link Lawrence Button to the sexual assault of a former University of Essex student, in 2009, may be scaled back.
  • ...3 more comments...
  • The Zhan on 06 Jan 12
     
    This article compromises the privacy of British citizens, as well as the reliability and integrity of the DNA database. I will focus my comment on the latter. It was a matter of fortune that Button's DNA had been collected due to his arrest for a domestic assault in May 2010. This is because according to the Protection of Freedoms Bill, biometric material can only be retained if the holder consents it formally. This consent "can be withdrawn at any time". There are also strict regulations on the amount of time that a DNA profile can be retained by authorities according to the new Bill. In addition to that, what way is there to ensure the 62 million(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom) British citizens have their DNA profile taken and input in the database? This compromises the integrity and completeness of the DNA database. According to the article itself, "The national database is believed to hold over five million DNA profiles". The new Bill also "requires schools to get parents' consent before processing children's biometric information" (http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/protectionoffreedoms.html) The full official bill on the regulation of biometric data can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2010-2012/0099/lbill_2010-20120099_en_2.htm#pt1-ch1-pb1-l1g1 Hence the sweeping statement "The odds, we were told, were over a billion to one, so we were quite confident we'd got the right man", is certainly misleading, because the database is likely not to include a fraction of the British population. The most disturbing thing is that the responsible chief Richard McNamara states "it was the DNA alone that convicted the man, because we never had any other evidence". Is it really ethical to convict a criminal solely based on a potentially incomplete database? A solution to this problem would be to enforce surveillance systems and active police monitoring in order to obtain more plausible evidence.
  • The Zhan on 06 Jan 12
     
    This article regards the compromising of the privacy of British citizens, as well as the reliability and integrity of the DNA database. I will focus my comment on the latter.
  • Mr Brooke on 06 Jan 12
     
    "The Zhan" you raise some interesting points on the privacy issues of DNA databases. However I think you may have misunderstood the reliability issue of the DNA test. When two DNA samples are found to be the same then it is 99.99% certain that it is in fact the DNA of the suspect and is a very reliable indicator that it was that person. There are forensic issues involved in the collection and contamination of DNA samples from a crime scene but that is another issue. The main social and ethical issue here that you have rightly pointed out is the collection and storage of DNA from people. This article outlines some of these issues from 2008: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7177152.stm Here the issue of innocent peoples data being stored has come because ....."following a change in the law in 2001, all DNA collected by forensics - for whatever purpose - can be stored permanently. " It was promised in the recent election in the UK to destroy old data but it appears to be one of the many U turns that the current government has made: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8659968/A-Bill-to-curtail-our-liberty.html
  • The Zhan on 06 Jan 12
     
    I agree with your first point to some extent, but I think that implying that it DNA profiling is 99.99% accurate is when in fact it is 99.9999999999% accurate (one to a trillion sir, get it right), is not acceptable - according to this http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/henryporter/2009/may/25/dna-database-false-positive I think that retaining DNA samples in databases and profiling an individual in a pervasively detailed manner could lead to extremes such as that of convicting criminals for pre-crimes, as portrayed in the film Minority Report. That would heavily compromise a citizen's privacy. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I7tBjrA8Mj0/TWPfWNY9-0I/AAAAAAAAADg/QTXlFpTtNvM/s1600/MINORITY+REPORT.jpg "The US government has come up with a Big Brother-esque machine that senses if an individual intends to do harm". The system, "Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), determines if a person intends to do harm by using a mal-intent algorithm that uses data from sensors that monitor a person's physiological and behavioral changes." http://news.techworld.com/security/3309928/tom-cruise-pre-crime-minority-report-machine-brought-to-life/
  • Mr Brooke on 06 Jan 12
     
    Good find Zhan! Would be interesting to see what the bods in the maths department have to say about "adventitious matches" and statistical probability. Maybe any of you who do HL maths can follow it up and add to this? Nice to see a reference to some classic sci-fi as well. This is a favourite read of mine. Also one of my all time top ten films! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/
Fiche Galinha

How to identify fake Facebook accounts | InSecurity Complex - CNET News - 1 views

news.cnet.com/...dentify-fake-facebook-accounts

3.4_internet 1.5_authenticity 2.5_social_networking 2.5_home_leisure

shared by Fiche Galinha on 02 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Tranny Franny on 02 Feb 12
     
    The main social and ethical in this article would have to be authenticity, as it deals with the fact that people are making accounts to be real people. In my own experience I've had this happen to me once and it was easily identified for the reasons this article states, no status updates etc. Although in my case it was harmless, it can lead to issues of a greater significance. This article also highlights the worrying ease at which people can fake an accout and that there is a very significant number of these accounts. They could in some cases be used in a harmful manner. For example, sexual predators could easily make a profile pretending to be 15 years old, add a profile picture of a child and then add other children as friends. This creates a security issue as the children's life is in a potentially harmful situation, as these cases of sexual predators over the internet has been a security issue since social networks came to be. Another issue that lack of authenticity brings is that these fake accounts could be used for spam, and could also potentially be used to spread malware. This is a very common problem in Facebook as these fake accounts can share a link with their "friends" and from this it starts spreading throughout the entire social network.
The Zhan

Bosses switch on antisocial network - 2 views

www.smh.com.au/...al-network-20110301-1bd6t.html

1.7_surveillance 2.1_bus_emp 3.4_internet 3.3_networks 3.2 _software

shared by The Zhan on 08 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • 'It's about informing you where you stand in relation to other people rather than a manager having to come over and talk to you about it
  • Some companies are introducing internal social networks to try to encourage staff to talk to their colleagues rather than escape into the ether
  • The Zhan on 08 Feb 12
     
    Rather than blocking access to Facebook and Twitter, a growing of employers are monitoring what proportion of the working day individuals spend on them.
  • Tranny Franny on 10 Feb 12
     
    State and Describe the main Social and Ethical issues that relates to this article: The main social and ethical issue that relates to this article is surveillance. In this article, it is suggested that workers in an office space would have the time they spend on a social network being monitored and controlled. This survaillence of how the workers spend their time on the computer seems somewhat appropriate in my opinion. What this is doing is it's reaching a compromise for the workers, by still letting them access these social networks, while limiting how long they can access it for daily so as to ensure that they focus as much on their work. Although it could be question whether it's ethical to monitor people's computer, what this is doing is avoiding measures such as a boss visually monitoring everyone's computer behind their backs,which raises a much bigger surveillance issue. The second suggestion of an internal and local social network that would only include people in the workplace is also a good option that attempts to keep the workers focused on the workplace and to ecourage communication between workers, rather than getting distracted with life outside the workplace. This is also, in my opinion an excellent suggestion as it offers an alternative to simply blocking social networks, which raises an issue in terms of how ethical it is to simply restrict someone from visiting a website, which could be seen as censorship.
Mr Brooke

TNS Digital Life | Internet Statistics & Social Media Usage | Online Behavior & Trends - 1 views

discoverdigitallife.com

3.4_internet

shared by Mr Brooke on 12 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Mr Brooke on 12 Oct 10
     
    Cool infographics about online behaviour
Mr Brooke

The Secret's Behind Wikileaks | Julian Assange - 2 views

www.theage.com.au/...ian-assange-20100521-w1um.html

wikileaks

shared by Mr Brooke on 26 Nov 10 - Cached
  • Mr Brooke on 26 Nov 10
     
    "'But then I didn't do anything with it.''"
El Mexicano Pastiche

Wikileaks finds cash to continue - 0 views

www.theregister.co.uk/...wikileaks_pledge_drive

2.6_pol_gov wikileaks 1.1_reliability_integrity 1.3_privacy_anonymity 1.4_Intellectual_Property

shared by El Mexicano Pastiche on 19 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • El Mexicano Pastiche on 19 Nov 10
     
    Wikileaks began life in December 2006 with a promise to publish leaked sensitive government or corporate documents, after verifying their authenticity. It promises to protect the anonymity of its contributors. At the bottom of the article there is some information about Sarah Palin's hacked Yahoo account and other documents released by wikileaks.
Mr Brooke

3D printer kits - a great gift for the geek in your life | Technology | The O... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...3d-printer-kit-makerbot

3.1_hardware

shared by Mr Brooke on 19 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Mr Brooke on 19 Dec 10
     
    Why buy christmas present when you can make your own!
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