The Changing format of Cinema.

Cinema and TV is evolving maybe to a format that wont be recognized by most most hardware, possibly to a condition that will make it hard to share for people who like to share the latest films or TV show.
Either way despite the war of film studios and the people who can't afford to keep watching expensive films at the cinema, the format of movies will change again. In recent years the FCC process, led by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) adopted a range of standards from interlaced 1,080-line video (a technical descendant of the original analog NHK 1125/30 Hz system) with a maximum frame rate of 30 Hz, and 720-line video, progressively scanned, with a maximum frame rate of 60 Hz. In the end, however, the DVB standard of resolutions (1080, 720, 480) and respective frame rates (24, 25, 30) were adopted in conjunction with the Europeans that were also involved in the same standardization process.The FCC officially adopted the ATSC transmission standard (which included both HD and SD video standards) in 1996, with the first broadcasts on October 28, 1998. In the early 2000s, it looked as if DVB would be the video standard far into the future. However, both Brazil and China have adopted alternative standards for high-definition video.

The human eye and its brain interface, the human visual system, can process 10 to 12 separate images per second, perceiving them individually. The visual cortex holds onto one image for about one-fifteenth of a second, so if another image is received during that period an illusion of continuity is created, allowing a sequence of still images to give the impression of motion. When sound film was introduced in 1926, variations in film speed were no longer tolerated as the human ear is more sensitive to changes in audio frequency. From 1927 to 1930, the rate of 24 FPS became standard for 35 mm sound film.
High-frame-rate has attracted the attention of camera makers also. Previously confined to specialty, high-end, camera makers like Red, Canon has added support for frame rates up to 60 fps to its upcoming Canon EOS C500 – although the jump from 48 fps to 60 fps is hard to detect, so most high-frame-rate movies will likely settle for 48 fps. While still pricey, high-frame-rate tools will increasingly become cost effective even for independent filmmakers wanting to take advantage of the new technology. Even with some well-known filmmakers like Ang Lee being skeptical, the big money and big names behind 48 fps movies mean it’s here to stay, There is another big reason studios and theater chains will be pushing 3D — money. With increasingly capable home theater setups and Internet streaming competing with theaters, the movie business needs to differentiate its offerings in any way it can. Upgrading theater projectors to 48 fps, even at a cost of several thousand dollars per screen, may pay for itself if it gives theater goers a premium experience. Jackson is hoping that over 10,000 theaters will be high-frame-rate capable by the time The Hobbit releases. Even so, Jackson and Warner Brothers are hedging their bets — the film will be released in six different versions: 2D, 3D, and 3D IMAX — all of them in both 24 fps and 48 fps.
48 fps also allows for the creation of very smooth slow-motion scenes, simply by double-printing each frame to yield a 24 fps half-speed version. Of course in this case 48 fps could be used just for the scenes which need to be in slo-mo, with the rest of the film recorded in 24 fps. Even for full-speed scenes, 48 fps has advantages. Fast camera moves no longer cause “strobing,” and individual frames are sharper. Action scenes are definitely smoother and more lifelike. These changes may be disconcerting to those used to viewing movies at 24 fps, but new moviegoers could quickly become addicted and not want to go back. Just like the rush to color led to a flurry of colorized versions of black and white classics, we may well see post-production 48 fps renderings of existing movies.3D is one of the driving forces for high-frame-rate movies. By shooting at 48 fps, it’s possible to show 24 fps to each eye through a pair of active glasses, for example. It’s probably no small coincidence that Cameron and Jackson are two of the largest promoters of 3D movies, not only shooting them that way but with Cameron converting his own Titanic to 3D for re-release.

Improving the time resolution as well as pixel resolution, will not doubt improve cinema to point that it will be almost life like. Action films will have a smooth fast sequences which will be too fast or subtle for people to see, it seems to be the new toy for film makers to use against the illegal downloaders. Expecting quality to out shine lower formats, to win expensive seats back in the Multiplexes. Peter Jackson's The Hobbit will no doubt draw in the crowds, but the future of cinema will need a lot more then a higher quality of video format to ensure continued success.

Cure exercise fatigue with a heat exchange glove

The recent Olympics was a excellent show case of Athletes at their peak performance, at this stage of any number of factors could either win or lose a gold medal, news that even twitter could effect an athletes mind before they go on. Considering that performance enhancing drugs will do wonders for someone to out shine anyone else at the expense of someone's health. physical exercise and competition sports maybe improved by training and improving the body to recover from fatigue.

Physical fatigue or muscle weakness and/or aches, (or "lack of strength") is a direct term for the inability to exert force with one's muscles to the degree that would be expected given the individual's general physical fitness. A test of strength is often used during a diagnosis of a muscular disorder before the etiology can be identified. Such etiology depends on the type of muscle weakness, which can be true or perceived as well as central or peripheral. True weakness is substantial, while perceived weakness is a sensation of having to put more effort to do the same task. Central muscle weakness is an overall exhaustion of the whole body, while peripheral weakness is an exhaustion of individual muscles.

Fatigue is a normal result of working, mental stress, overstimulation and under stimulation, jet lag or active recreation, depression, and also boredom, disease and lack of sleep. It may also have chemical causes, such as poisoning or mineral or vitamin deficiencies. Massive blood loss frequently results in fatigue. Fatigue is different from drowsiness, where a patient feels that sleep is required. Fatigue is a normal response to physical exertion or stress, but can also be a sign of a physical disorder.

The temperature-regulation research of Stanford biologists H. Craig Heller and Dennis Grahn has led to a device that rapidly cools body temperature, greatly improves exercise recovery, and could help explain why muscles get tired. Stanford biology researcher Dennis Grahn, seems bemused. "We really stumbled on this by accident," he said. "We wanted to get a model for studying heat dissipation."
But for more than a decade now, Grahn and biology Professor H. Craig Heller have been pursuing a serendipitous find by taking advantage of specialized heat-transfer veins in the palms of hands, they can rapidly cool athletes' core temperatures – and dramatically improve exercise recovery and performance.

In humans, AVAs show up in several places, including the face and feet, but the researchers' glove targets our most prominent radiator structures – in the palms of our hands. The newest version of the device is a rigid plastic mitt, attached by a hose to what looks like a portable cooler. When Grahn sticks his hand in the airtight glove, the device creates a slight vacuum. The veins in the palm expand, drawing blood into the AVAs, where it is rapidly cooled by water circulating through the glove's plastic lining. The method is more convenient than, say, full-body submersion in ice water, and avoids the pitfalls of other rapid palm-cooling strategies. Because blood flow to the AVAs can be nearly shut off in cold weather, making the hand too cold will have almost no effect on core temperature. Cooling, Grahn says, is therefore a delicate balance.

Even in prototype form, the researchers' device proved enormously efficient at altering body temperature. The glove's early successes were actually in increasing the core temperature of surgery patients recovering from anesthesia. "We built a silly device, took it over to the recovery room and, lo and behold, it worked beyond our wildest imaginations," Heller explained. "Whereas it was taking them hours to re-warm patients coming into the recovery room, we were doing it in eight, nine minutes."
But the glove's effects on athletic performance didn't become apparent until the researchers began using the glove to cool a member of the lab – the confessed "gym rat" and frequent coauthor Vinh Cao – between sets of pull-ups. The glove seemed to nearly erase his muscle fatigue; after multiple rounds, cooling allowed him to do just as many pull-ups as he did the first time around. So the researchers started cooling him after every other set of pull-ups.

The researchers applied the cooling method to other types of exercise – bench press, running, cycling. In every case, rates of gain in recovery were dramatic, without any evidence of the body being damaged by overwork – hence the "better than steroids" claim. Versions of the glove have since been adopted by the Stanford football and track and field teams, as well as other college athletics programs, the San Francisco 49ers, the Oakland Raiders and Manchester United soccer club.
Much of the lab's recent research can be summed up with Grahn's statement that "temperature is a primary limiting factor for performance." But the researchers were at a loss to understand why until recently.

In 2009, it was discovered that muscle pyruvate kinase, or MPK, an enzyme that muscles need in order to generate chemical energy, was highly temperature- sensitive. At normal body temperature, the enzyme is active – but as temperatures rise, some of the enzyme begins to deform into the inactive state. By the time muscle temperatures near 104 degrees Fahrenheit, MPK activity completely shuts down. There's a very good biological reason for this shutdown. As a muscle cell increases its activity, it heats up. But if this process continues for too long, the cell will self-destruct. By shutting itself down below a critical temperature threshold, MPK serves as an elegant self-regulation system for the muscle. "Your muscle cells are saying, "You can't work that hard anymore, because if you do you're going to cook and die,'" Grahn said. When you cool the muscle cell, you return the enzyme to the active state, essentially resetting the muscle's state of fatigue.The version of the device that will be made available commercially is still being tweaked, but the researchers see applications for heat extraction in areas more important than a simple performance boost. Hyperthermia and heat stress don't just lead to fatigue – they can become medical emergencies.

Understanding Sex, or just filming a unique perspective

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter. Pornography may use a variety of media, including books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, and video games. The term applies to the depiction of the act rather than the act itself, and so does not include live exhibitions like sex shows and striptease. A pornographic model poses for still photographs. A pornographic actor or porn star performs in pornographic films. If dramatic skills are not involved, a performer in porn films may be also be called a model.

In the world of science Dr Pek Van Andel's MRI sex video has thrust its way into an argument that periodically convulses the public and the courts. The video shows the first moving images of a couple's sex organs while those organs were in use. It gives graphic new life to a question as old as sin: what is pornography? Justice Potter Stewart famously wrote in a 1964 US supreme court decision that defining which materials are pornographic is hard, but recognizing them is easy. Quoth the justice: "I know it when I see it."
Van Andel made the video in the late 1990s, but kept pretty quiet about it for a decade. He instigated and orchestrated the entire project at a hospital in Groningen, the Netherlands. He and three colleagues published a monograph in 1999, in the British Medical Journal. (Two co-authors, Ida Sabelis and Eduard Mooyaart, themselves engaged in intercourse in the MRI tube. Several other couples also contributed their all to the project.) A year later, the entire team was awarded an Ig Nobel prize.

Called Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal, the study includes two copies of an MRI midsagittal image of "the anatomy of sexual intercourse". In the second copy, labels and hand-drawn outlines identify the bits that are of medical significance ("P=penis, Ur=urethra, Pe=perineum, U=uterus, S=symphysis, B=bladder, I=intestine, L5=lumbar 5, Sc=scrotum"). Unknown to almost everyone, Van Andel asked the MRI technician to gather all the static images and assemble them together into a motion picture. The result: the 21st century's greatest challenge to easy assumptions about porn.

Looking beyond the skin in the act of sexual intercourse, seems to interest not only the biologists but also neuroscientists. Professor Barry Komisaruk, a psychologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey and his team hope to uncover what goes wrong in both men and women who cannot reach sexual climax.

Using brain scan images to create the world's first movie of the female brain as it approaches, experiences and recovers from an orgasm. The animation reveals the steady buildup of activity in the brain as disparate regions flicker into life and then come together in a crescendo of activity before gently settling back down again. To make the animation, researchers monitored a woman's brain as she lay in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and stimulated herself. The research will help scientists to understand how the brain conducts the symphony of activity that leads to sexual climax in a woman. The animation was compiled from sequential brain scans of Nan Wise, a 54-year-old PhD student and sex therapist in Komisaruk's lab.

The five-minute movie shows how activity changes across 80 separate regions of the brain in snapshots taken every two seconds. The animation uses a "hot metal" colour scale that begins at dark red and progresses through orange and yellow to white at the highest levels of activity. "The general aim of this research is to understand how the orgasm builds up from genital stimulation and what parts of the brain become recruited and finally build up into an orgasm," said Prof Komisaruk, who presented the work at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington DC on Monday. The work has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

 As the animation plays, activity first builds up in the genital area of the sensory cortex, a response to being touched in that region. Activity then spreads to the limbic system, a collection of brain structures involved in emotions and long-term memory. As the orgasm arrives, activity shoots up in two parts of the brain called the cerebellum and the frontal cortex, perhaps because of greater muscle tension. During orgasm, activity reaches a peak in the hypothalamus, which releases a chemical called
oxytocin that causes pleasurable sensations and stimulates the uterus to contract.

Activity also peaks in the nucleus accumbens, an area linked to reward and pleasure. After orgasm, the activity in all these regions gradually calms down.Komisaruk speculates that people might be able to learn how to change their brain activity, a feat that could perhaps help treat a broad range of conditions, such as anxiety, depression and pain. "We're using orgasm as a way of producing pleasure. If we can learn how to activate the pleasure regions of the brain then that could have wider applications," he said.

GPS, a brief history

In the unlikely event that you are lost in the woods or far away from any telephone can you guarantee your own safety?. Most people go on holiday or walk in a slow pace to miss the tour guide turning a corner rendering the tourist lost in a unfamiliar place. Consider other location based emergencies whereby your child is lost and cant get to an are with a telephone signal. Or even your car is lost in a sea of parked cars after going to a 3 day music camping even like Glastonbury.

Technology based solutions are at hand to solve your predicament, creating a need when before GPS became popular. The whole phenomenon of GPS is based partly on similar ground-based radio-navigation systems, such as LORAN and the Decca Navigator developed in the early 1940s, and used during World War II. In 1956, the German-American physicist Friedwardt Winterberg proposed a test of general relativity (for time slowing in a strong gravitational field) using accurate atomic clocks placed in orbit inside artificial satellites. (To achieve accuracy requirements, GPS uses principles of general relativity to correct the satellites' atomic clocks.) Additional inspiration for GPS came when the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik in 1957. Two American physicists, William Guier and George Weiffenbach, at Johns Hopkins's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), decided on their own to monitor Sputnik's radio transmissions. Within hours they realized that, because of the Doppler effect, they could pinpoint where the satellite was along its orbit from the Doppler shift.

The first satellite navigation system, Transit, used by the United States Navy, was first successfully tested in 1960. It used a constellation of five satellites and could provide a navigational fix approximately once per hour. In 1967, the U.S. Navy developed the Timation satellite that proved the ability to place accurate clocks in space, a technology required by GPS. In the 1970s, the ground-based Omega Navigation System, based on phase comparison of signal transmission from pairs of stations, became the first worldwide radio navigation system. Limitations of these systems drove the need for a more universal navigation solution with greater accuracy. In 1996, recognizing the importance of GPS to civilian users as well as military users, U.S. President Bill Clinton issued a policy directive 25 declaring GPS to be a dual-use system and establishing an Interagency GPS Executive Board to manage it as a national asset. In 1998, United States Vice President Al Gore announced plans to upgrade GPS with two new civilian signals for enhanced user accuracy and reliability, particularly with respect to aviation safety and in 2000 the United States Congress authorized the effort, referring to it as GPS III.


Today we can take GPS for granted safe in the knowledge that we usually know where we are, mobile phones can connect us to any phone network. Despite phone companies eagerness to mention full coverage in areas within built up areas of towns and cities, there are still places of little to no phone signal. Fortunately there is a device that utilizes the spot satellites round the world to communicate, rather then using mobile phone networks. Though paying a yearly subscription, you are safe with the knowledge that you can send messages or track your location or even send for help in the remotest areas of the world providing it is within the orange areas of the map above.

Another GPS device such as the Pocket finder is a small round object which can be given to your pets or your children for round the clock tracking. Along with software for your computer you can track, create geo fences and even determine the speed limit for any teenager. Most modern day uses for GPS seems to involve a social element, like geo tagging pictures or finding treasure. Now with devices getting smaller, it is possible to track your pets and children like a CIA operative and enforce some control. Spot satellites can provide coverage over most land masses, though at sea distress radio beacons, also known as emergency beacons, ELT or EPIRB, are tracking transmitters which aid in the detection and location of boats, aircraft, and people in distress. The average person with a phone should be relatively safe with todays technology. Allowing the rise of GPS function to go beyond emergency distress calls and communication to a social element. The future of GPS may well be in tracking everyones where a bouts, it certainly stating to appear in phone apps for dating and social networking.

The moon, a Tribute to Neil Armstrong

Reading up on Neil Armstrong I feel, I should contribute in honoring him considering that traveling to a hostile environment with no possible rescue. The whole mission to the moon was an extraordinary feet of engineering excellence combined with a heroism to go beyond the confines of the planet and look into the unknown. In order to go to the moon, a spacecraft must first leave the gravity well of the Earth. The only practical way of accomplishing this currently is with a rocket.

Unlike other airborne vehicles such as balloons or jets, a rocket is the only known form of propulsion which can continue to increase its speed at high altitudes in the vacuum outside the Earth's atmosphere. Upon approach of the target moon, a spacecraft will be drawn ever closer to its surface at increasing speeds due to gravity. In order to land intact, a spacecraft must either be ruggedized to withstand a "hard landing" impact of less than about 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) (not possible with human occupants), or it must decelerate enough for a "soft landing" with negligible speed at contact.

The first three attempts by the Americans to perform a successful hard moon landing with a ruggedized seismometer package in 1962 all failed. The Soviets first achieved the milestone of a hard lunar landing with a ruggedized camera in 1966, followed only months later by the first unmanned soft lunar landing by the Americans. The escape velocity of the target moon is roughly equivalent to the speed of a crash landing on its surface, and thus is the total velocity which must be shed from the target moon's gravitational attraction for a soft landing to occur. For Earth's Moon, this figure is 2.38 kilometers per second (1.48 mi/s).

The Soviets succeeded in making the first crash landing on the Moon in 1959.  Crash landings  may occur because of malfunctions in a spacecraft, or they can be deliberately arranged for vehicles which do not have an on board landing rocket. There have been many such moon crashes, often with their flight path controlled to impact at precise locations on the lunar surface. For example, during the Apollo program the S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V moon rocket as well as the spent ascent stage of the lunar module were deliberately crashed on the Moon several times to provide impacts registering as a moonquake on seismometers that had been left on the lunar surface. Such crashes were instrumental in mapping the internal structure of the Moon.
To return to earth, the escape velocity of the moon must be overcome for the spacecraft to escape the gravity well of the moon. Rockets must be used to leave the Moon and return to space. Upon reaching Earth, atmospheric entry techniques are used to absorb the kinetic energy of a returning spacecraft and reduce its speed for safe landing. These functions greatly complicate a moon landing mission and lead to many additional operational considerations. Any moon departure rocket must first be carried to the Moon's surface by a moon landing rocket, increasing the latter's required size.

In the 1950s, tensions mounted between the two ideologically opposed superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union that had emerged as victors in the conflict. On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 as the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth and so initiated the Space Race. This unexpected event was a source of pride to the Soviets and shock to the Americans, who could now potentially be surprise attacked by nuclear-tipped Soviet rockets in under 30 minutes. Also, the steady beeping of the radio beacon aboard Sputnik 1 as it passed overhead every 96 minutes was widely viewed on both sides as effective propaganda to Third World countries demonstrating the technological superiority of the Soviet political system compared to the American one.

Despite the troubling mistrust between the two super powers, Nasa pulled off a incredible achievement. Much of the experience have been from previous attempts with the unmanned missions. And still early in the developing stages of flying to the moon NASA seemed over confident to try a manned mission. With luck and hope from everyone who was watching at the time, Neil Armstrong stepped down and faced a new world. Even today when future travel to Mars seems to promise a manned mission one day.

Personnel flight, flying without airplanes

Looking at todays films of superheroes, particularly the fictional character Iron man, I wonder if it is possible to use technology to strap on a device to lift you in the air and allow a sustained flight across long distances. Despite Iron-man's use of a fictional power source from his chest, there are current technologies that could in theory allow the operator to fly.

During World War II, Germany conducted late-war experiments by strapping two wearable shortened Schmidt pulse jet tubes of low thrust to the body of a pilot. The working principle was the same as the Argus As 014 pulse jet that powered the Fieseler Fi 103 flying bomb (more popularly known as the V-1 or buzz bomb), though the size was much smaller. As such, the device had to be for short duration “jumps” of ranges up to 50-70 meters. This was not meant to be a individual flying machine to achieve any sort of altitude or long flight journey, so emphasis was placed on finding a suitable type of propulsion to accomplish the limited jump range.

The Schmidt pulse jet seemed ideal for this, but since a pulse jet cannot operate without forward airspeed, the units involved were adapted and force-fed oxygen by a separate oxygen tank. Paul Schmidt patented his pulse jet design in 1931 the unit utilized the pulse jet design. These Schmidt pulse jets were small pulse tubes able to be carried by one man.. The apparatus involved strapping on two Schmidt pulse tubes - one on the back for forward flight and a smaller, less powerful unit carried ventrally for simple control with hand grips for steering. Both pulse tubes had to be ignited at the same time to enable proper jumps. The units consumed 100 grams of fuel per second. Flight duration was minimal and both units had to be turned off immediately upon landing.
Aerojet General company in 1959 to research the possibility of designing a Small rocket lift device suitable for army purposes. Aerojet came to the conclusion that the version with the engine running on hydrogen peroxide was most suitable. However, it soon became known to the military that engineer Wendell Moore of the Bell Aerosystems company had for several years been carrying out experiments to make a personal jet device. After becoming acquainted with his work, servicemen during August 1960 decided to commission Bell Aerosystems with developing an SLRD "Small Rocket Lift Device".

A hydrogen peroxide-powered motor is based on the decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide. Nearly pure (90% in the Bell Rocket Belt) hydrogen peroxide is used. Pure hydrogen peroxide is relatively stable, but in contact with a catalyst (for example, silver) it decomposes into a mixture of superheated steam and oxygen in less than 1/10 millisecond, increasing in volume 5000 times: 2 H2O2 → 2 H2O + O2. The reaction is exothermic, i.e., accompanied by the liberation of much heat (about 2500 kJ/kg), forming in this case a steam-gas mixture at 740 °C. This hot gas is used exclusively as the reaction mass and is fed directly to one or more jet nozzles. Currently, such rocket belts can only fly for about 30 seconds (because of the limited amount of fuel the user can carry unassisted).

In the figure the hydrogen peroxide cylinders and compressed nitrogen cylinder are designated (pressure c. 40 atm or 4 MPa). The pilot turns the engine thrust control handle, and opens the regulator valve (3). Compressed nitrogen (1) displaces liquid peroxide of hydrogen (2), which on the tubes enters the gas generator (4). There it contacts the catalyst (thin silver plates, covered with a layer of samarium nitrate) and is decomposed. The resulting hot high-pressure mixture of steam and gas enters two pipes, which emerge from the gas generator. These pipes are covered with a layer of heat insulator to reduce loss of heat. Then the hot gas enters the jet nozzles (De Laval nozzles), where first they are accelerated, and then expand, acquiring supersonic speed and creating reactive thrust. The whole construction is simple and reliable; the rocket engine has no moving parts.

Recently Yves Rossy , inventor and aviation enthusiast, was the first person to achieve sustained human flight using a jet-powered fixed wing strapped to his back. This jet pack has led to his being nicknamed Airman, Jetman, Rocketman and, later, Fusionman.

Rossy developed and built a system comprising a back pack with semi-rigid aeroplane-type carbon-fiber wings with a span of about 2.4 metres (7.9 ft), powered by four attached Jet-Cat P200 jet engines modified from large-model, kerosene fueled, aircraft engines. His first flight was in November 2006 in Bex, lasting nearly six minutes and nine seconds. Rossy later successfully flew across the English Channel on 26 September 2008 in 9 minutes 7 seconds, reaching a speed of 299 km/h (186 mph) during the crossing. Later in 2008, he made a flight over the Alps, reaching a top descent speed of 304 km/h (189 mph) and an average speed of 124 mph.
On 5 November 2010, he flew a new version of his jet-powered flight system and successfully performed two aerial loops before landing via parachute. He launched from a hot air balloon piloted by Brian Jones at 2,400 meters (7,900 feet) and flew a total of 18 minutes before landing. The wingspan of Rossy's latest craft had been reduced to 2 m. On 7 May 2011, Rossy flew across the Grand Canyon in Arizona, after the United States Federal Aviation Administration classified his flight system as an aircraft, waived the normal 25 to 40 hours of flight testing time, and granted him permission to perform the flight.
There are other devices like the Martin jetpack which the operator straps on a large unit  similar to a vertical take of  engine with two ducted fans. Theoretically it could reach speeds unto 60-mph and rise to 8000 feet. Although its range is 31 miles with a price about $100,000, this device can take off and land and has the ability to fly at distance. Despite its cumbersome size the Martin jet-pack seems more like a miniature vehicle then a jet pack. My personnel preference would be Yves Rossy's design which uses 4 miniature model jets at a rough price of £2000 with a thrust of 100 Newtons or 10 kg per engine. Despite the jet wing not being able to vertically take off and land, Rossy simply uses a airplane at a safe height and lands with a parachute.

Perhaps one day someone might incorporate a two stage system which allow the vertical take off and land similar to the Bell rocket-belt and a miniature jet wing design  that Yvess Rossy invented, allowing the operator to take off and fly at distance and land safely on the other side.

How to stop a teen riot, use High frequency waves on the little darlings

Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson where thousands took to the streets. The first night of rioting took place on 7 August 2011 after a protest in Tottenham, following the death of Mark Duggan, a local man from the area, who was shot dead by police on 4 August 2011.

The immediate spark for violence was when large numbers of police arrived to disperse the demonstration. Several violent clashes with police, along with the destruction of police vehicles, magistrates' court, a double-decker bus, many civilian homes and businesses, began gaining attention from the media. Overnight, looting took place in Tottenham Hale Retail Park and nearby Wood Green.

The following days saw similar scenes in other parts of London with the worst violence taking place in Hackney, Brixton, Chingford, Peckham, Enfield, Battersea, Croydon, Ealing and East HamThe government figures show 13% of those arrested were gang members.

The city centre in Oxford Circus was also attacked. Some 90% of those brought before the courts were male and about half were aged under 21. Only 5% were over the age of 40.13% of those arrested overall were gang members but in London the figure was 19%.

Three-quarters of all those who appeared in court had a previous conviction or caution. For adults the figure was 80% and for juveniles it was 62%.

One in eight of all the crimes committed in the riots were muggings, claiming 664 victims. More than 2,500 shops and businesses were victims of looters and vandals, and more than 230 homes were hit by burglars or vandals. Two-thirds of the young people in court were classed as having some form of special educational need, compared to 21% for the national average. Many people called for the government to urge the police to deploy anti-riot methods often used outside Britain, such as water cannon and baton rounds, the use of which has long been resisted by senior police commanders and politicians.

Only recently discovered that high frequency could be used to detect a persons age, as a person grows older their ability to hear higher frequencies diminishes with time. Taking this idea Howard stapleton realized that troublesome youths were loitering around a grocery store. Using test subjects he found the right noise level at the right frequency to  use as a harmless deterrent on anyone under the age of 25. The device is marketed as a safety and security tool for preventing youths from congregating in specific areas. As such, it is promoted to reduce anti-social behavior such as loitering, graffiti, vandalism, drug use, drug distribution, and violence
There are estimated to be 3,500 of the devices in use across the country.

The German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health stated in a report on The Mosquito, entitled "Use of ultrasonic noise channels not entirely safe": The results of the examination are now available. The auditors were not able to certify this device as completely safe. The risk to the target group of teenagers and young adults is relatively low. They can leave the area when they hear the sound. On the other hand small children and infants are especially at risk, due to lengthy exposure to the sound, because the adults themselves do not perceive the noise. Moreover, the ultrasound affects not only hearing. Disruption of the equilibrium senses, as well as other extra-aural effects are well known. With the sound levels that can be reached by the device, the onset of dizziness, headache, nausea and impairment is to be expected. This is not the limit of the total risks to safety and health.

The Mosquito has received support and endorsements from municipalities, school districts, property management companies, convenience stores and other organisations. In light of the london riots, the Mosquito could have been used to harmlessly dispersed unruly teenagers. loiterers and opportunists saw other gang members circling local businesses, and in a mass coordinated effort. Some would say by social network sights, created panic on the streets. Such large gatherings would be easily dispersed if large broadcasts was to be transmitted, and might have prevented the attacks. There is no doubt that there are a growing number of teenagers who start their criminal career loitering around corner shops and local business.
Though the solution may not be to use the Mosquito to cure the growing number of disillusioned teenagers who are out of work or poorly educated.  Although it is possible a harmless deterrent might prevent a large gathering which sparked the riots in London.

Sex Pheromones, smell you later

The term "pheromone" was introduced by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek word pherein (to transport) and hormone (to stimulate). They are also sometimes classified as ecto-hormones. They were researched earlier by various scientists, including Jean-Henri Fabre, Joseph A. Lintner, Adolph Butenandt, and the prominent ethologist Karl von Frisch who called them various names like "alarm substances." These chemical messengers are transported outside of the body and result in a direct developmental effect on hormone levels or behavioral change. They proposed the term to describe chemical signals from conspecifics that elicit innate behaviors soon after the German Biochemist Adolf Butenandt characterized the first such chemical, bombykol (a chemically well-characterized pheromone released by the female silkworm to attract mates).

it wasn't until the 1960's that the quest to find pheromone in mammals became a really significant. In 1972 in scientific magazine Alex Comfort author of the 1970's best seller The joy of Sex argued that in nature that pheromones were likely to exist in humans. Since then a plethora of studies has implicated pheromones in many mammalian activities, including sex, maternal behavior, fighting, nesting and the recognition of members of one's species.  Pheromones have been said to accelerate the onset of puberty, block pregnancies and influence oestrous cycles and hormonal surges in a range of animals, although no one has ever identified the agents involved. In humans, pheromones have been claimed to influence sexual behavior, mood, length of menstrual cycles, even which seat people choose in waiting rooms. By 2000, dozens of brands of perfumes and aftershaves contained supposed pheromones, contributing to a multibillion dollar industry. Even so, in 2005, the question of wether humans have pheromones was listed by science among the top 100 unanswered scientific questions.

Recent scientific research has shown that men prefer T-shirts worn by ovulating women to those worn by women in another part of their cycle. A woman will unknowingly rate male body odor as more pleasant if the source of the odor shares fewer of her immune-system genes (which means he's less likely to be close kin). People exposed to cotton underarm pads worn by moviegoers can tell whether a viewer was scared or amused.

In addition, both males and females are affected by pheromones and the olfactory secretions of their children and their mates ... Like insects and other animals, scent promotes individual and gender recognition, can determine caste assignment and social and economic status, as well as kinship, group, and maternal identity. For example, a breast-fed human infant is able to distinguish by smell, the breast of his mother vs that of another lactating female ... Conversely, even with as little as 10 minutes of exposure to their newborn, mothers are able to identify the smell of their baby vs that of another infant ... In fact, even fathers, as well as aunts and grandmothers are able to identify, by smell, a garment worn by genetically related vs unrelated infants including garments worn by the biological mother

Releaser pheromones trigger a behavioral response (such as wooing a mate), while so-called primer pheromones cause physiological changes. Scientists have observed what they think are the effects of human primer pheromones, including studies showing that some compound in the extract from a woman's armpit can cause menstrual cycles of nearby women to sync up. And a recent study found that women can smell a guy's sexual intentions. Nursing infants have been found to turn toward a lactating mother's breast, suggesting some scent molecules drive the response. But without any actual chemicals identified as pheromones, scientists can't test effects on humans, so the jury is out as to whether we communicate via pheromones.

Tristram Wyatt of the University of Oxford explains that "As far as releasers, it may be that we simply don't have them," Wyatt said. "Certainly courtship and everything else is so complex in humans that it may be that the things that are really important are visual and social signals." Recent research showed that at about the same time our primate ancestors gained color vision, they also lost the genes for so-called vomeronasal organ (VNO) receptors, Wyatt said. Non-human animals use the organ to detect pheromones. (Turns out, mice use both their VNO and main smelling system to detect pheromones, so maybe humans don't need that specialized organ.) "It may be at that point that we moved from running things mostly by pheromones to doing things much more in the visual fashion," Wyatt said. In the end, it is best to avoid expensive bottles and potions that claim to enhance sex appeal. The likely explanation is that your own body sweat would probably work much better and with family members as a nurturing response, so romance is off the table.

The Mozart effect, or what music does to us

To most people music is a form of art it lifts the soul and replaces the atmosphere with good vibes. According to neurobiologist Norman M. Weinberger, music exists in every culture. Parents all over the world sing to their babies. Music provides us with a natural and rhythmic way to learn. Do you ever wonder why children learn to sing their ABCs before they can say them?

Do you notice that so many of our favorite children’s books have a certain rhyme or rhythmic pattern? Many studies show that there is a very strong connection between literacy and music. Through music, children learn to understand language (we must comprehend language in order to become “true” readers). Experiment with rhythm, words, tempo, and melody (which are important skills in reading aloud). Think creatively and holistically. Make the connection between print and spoken words. Practice motor development and motor coordination while experimenting with various instruments and dancing. Listen (we sometimes forget that listening is an important literacy skill).

The concept of the "Mozart effect" was described by French researcher, Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis in his 1991 book Pourquoi Mozart? (Why Mozart?). He used the music of Mozart in his efforts to "retrain" the ear, and believed that listening to the music presented at differing frequencies helped the ear, and promoted healing and the development of the brain.

The 1997 book by Don Campbell, "The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit", discusses the theory that listening to Mozart (especially the piano concertos) may temporarily increase one's IQ and produce many other beneficial effects on mental function. Campbell recommends playing specially selected classical music to infants, in the expectation that it will benefit their mental development.

After The Mozart Effect, Campbell wrote a follow-up book, The Mozart Effect For Children, and created related products. Among these are collections of music that he states harness the Mozart effect to enhance "deep rest and rejuvenation", "intelligence and learning", and "creativity and imagination". Campbell defines the term as "an inclusive term signifying the transformational powers of music in health, education, and well-being. It represents the general use of music to reduce stress, depression, or anxiety; induce relaxation or sleep; activate the body; and improve memory or awareness. Innovative and experimental uses of music and sound can improve listening disorders, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, autism, and other mental and physical disorders and diseases"

In 1999 a major challenge was raised to the existence of the Mozart effect by two teams of researchers. In a pair of papers published together under the title "Prelude or Requiem for the 'Mozart Effect'?" Chabris reported a meta-analysis demonstrating that "any cognitive enhancement is small and does not reflect any change in IQ or reasoning ability in general, but instead derives entirely from performance on one specific type of cognitive task and has a simple neuropsychological explanation", called "enjoyment arousal". For example, he cites a study that found that "listening either to Mozart or to a passage from a Stephen King story enhanced subjects' performance in paper folding and cutting (one of the tests frequently employed by Rauscher and Shaw) but only for those who enjoyed what they heard".

Kenneth Steele, psychology professor at Appalachian State University, found that "listening to Mozart produced a 3-point increase relative to silence in one experiment and a 4-point decrease in the other experiment". When he played the sonata to youngsters, he said it had no more effect on their intelligence than contemporary music, or even random noise did. Professor Steele is one of a number of scientists debunking the popular theory. John Bruer, head of the McDonnell Foundation in St Louis, is about to publish a book called The Myth of the First Three Years, in which he rubbishes the whole notion that a single piece of music can have an impact on a child's intelligence.

Music despite Professor steele debunking the Mozart effect, music is still important for growth. Daniel Levitin neuroscientist, musician and psychologist has a theory that early man used music to communicate with each other. Alterations in pitch and time,  can be conveyed by emotional or urgency, which later grew into a more complex language. Further investigations into the older parts of the brain the cerebellum responds selectively activated to music and not to language. This suggest that music since the Neolithic age has been around since the dawn of man. Music what ever genre can still make a positive effect on us, if you believe it helps stimulate your brain or not.