February 27, 2012

Good Morning,

HUD's, or Heads up Displays, are characteristic of first person shooter video games, used to display ammunition, stamina and so forth in your immediate vision. Well, now it will be a reality. Google says it is releasing glasses that feed the users with real-time information. The details on this one are pretty wild, check them out in the last article.

Until Next Time,
Erin

Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
Email your comments

P.S. You can discuss this issue or any other topic in the new
Gizmorama forum. Check it out here...
http://gizmorama.gophercentral.com
------------------------------------------------------------

Biodiversity an issue with GMO policies

PITTSBURGH - Policies regarding the introduction of genetically modified organisms need to take biodiversity issues into account, a U.S. academic says. University of Pittsburgh history and philosophy of science Professor Sandra D. Mitchell says policy makers must consider both global biodiversity and regional differences regarding the impact of GMOs. "The problem with generating 'global' GMO policies is that policy makers are failing to consider the local variations of a particular region," Mitchell said in a Pitt release. Mitchell cited the effects of the bacillus thuringiensis, a soil-dwelling bacterium commonly used as a biological pesticide, on such different host plants as corn and cotton. There are nearly 600 strains of BT, each producing a different effect on GMO plants, she said. "Reasonable policy needs to take into account such complexities. The consequences for biodiversity of introducing a GMO are relevant to successful regulation." Mitchell made her remarks at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.


USSOCOM deploying new radar system

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A radar that penetrates dense foliage to detect buried or camouflaged objects is being deployed by the U.S. military's Southern Command. Lockheed Martin's Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment-Enabled Radar is a low-frequency synthetic-aperture radar that delivers tactical ground imagery despite foliage, rain, darkness, dust storms or atmospheric haze. A decision to deploy the system came after more than 160 tests of Tracer, which was fitted onto various manned and unmanned aircraft. "We welcome the opportunity to continue to support Southcom's mission," said Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Defense. "As our foliage penetration system has for many years, the Tracer system stands ready to serve and deliver Southcom with unique actionable intelligence products 24/7, 365 days of the year, day or night." Lockheed said its foliage penetration system, which went operational with the U.S. military in 2005, will be replaced by Tracer, which is smaller and lighter. Tracer was developed for the U.S. Army's Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md.


Study: Y chromosome not going 'extinct'

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A study has contradicted the notion the male sex-determining Y chromosome is steadily shedding genes and is doomed to degenerate, U.S. researchers say. In a 2002 article in Nature, two Australian researchers examined the rate at which the Y has withered and estimated it "will self-destruct in around 10 million years." However, Jennifer Hughes, a geneticist at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts and her colleague David Page say the version of the Y chromosome carried by every human male has lost just a single gene in the 25 million years since humans, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques shared a common ancestor. They presented their finding in an article published online in Nature Wednesday. To study its history, Hughes and her team decoded the Y chromosome of the rhesus macaque, which shares a common ancestor with humans and chimps that lived about 25 million years ago. Macaques are promiscuous, and Hughes said she expected to see that the macaque Y had dropped some genes and duplicated others involved in making sperm. "It couldn't have been more different," she said. The macaque Y contained just one gene that humans have lost, and human Y has grown much longer than the macaque's but the genes were mostly the same. "Those are the genes that give me confidence that in another 50 million years, the Y chromosome will still be there," Scott Hawley, a geneticist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo., said. "They're not going away." He suggested the genes have stuck around because, without them, men would be infertile. "I'm more worried about global warming than the Y chromosome disappearing," Hawley said. "I'm hoping that this paper has settled this controversy."


Google to introduce 'reality' glasses

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Google will introduce glasses with augmented reality software to stream information to the wearer's eyeballs in real time, The New York Times is reporting. The glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year and are expected "to cost around the price of current smartphones," or $250 to $600, sources told the Times. The glasses will use Google's Android operating system and will include a small screen a few inches from the wearer's eye, with a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS. A built-in low-resolution camera will monitor the environment in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, Google employees familiar with the system told the Times. The glasses are not intended to be worn constantly, they said, but will be more like smartphones, utilized when needed. The glasses will use things like Google Latitude to share location, Google Goggles to search images and figure out what is being looked at, and Google Maps to show other things nearby, they said.

------------------------------------------------------------
Check out Viral Videos on the Net at EVTV1.com
http://www.evtv1.com/
EVTV1.com