silicon.com

[...]The Foresight report said: 'In the longer term, artificial control systems, with control algorithms tuned over millions of hours of simulated and real driving, will have the advantage over humans. Eventually we may come to prefer automated rather than human control.'

RFID tags, sensors, GPS technology, 4G networks, wi-fi and artificial intelligence will be embedded into vehicles and the transport network to create an 'intelligent infrastructure', according to the report. This would inevitably be central to the government's already announced road-user charging strategy.

The report said: 'Vehicles will incorporate hundreds of network nodes to manage fuel efficiency, security, passenger monitoring and passenger comfort, as well as inter-vehicle distances and optimal vehicle speeds.'

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Computerworld

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has imposed a $10 million civil penalty against data aggregator ChoicePoint Inc. for a massive data security breach that resulted in the compromise of nearly 140,000 consumer records last year (see 'ChoicePoint to tighten data access after ID theft').

In addition to the penalty, which FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras described as the largest ever levied by the agency, ChoicePoint has been asked to set up a $5 million trust fund for individuals who might have become victims of identity theft as a result of the breach.

As part of its agreement with the FTC, Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint will also have to submit to comprehensive security audits every two years for the next 20 years.

[...]

Link to Privacy at ChoicePoint.

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Anything But Ordinary, by Michael McCleary

Episode 108

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Vancouver Sun

[...]

Graafstra's experiments piqued the interest of geeks around the world and he estimates there are perhaps more than 20 people who have implanted the RFID tags. There's even an online group, the 'Tagged' RFID implant forum, where members share their implant stories and photos and vigorously debate the merits and risks of putting computer chips under their skin.

While the ogre of Big Brother, (or George Bush as some forum participants fret) looms large in the debates, the RFID experts say users have little to worry about, since the technology transmits no more than a few inches. And Graafstra said his implant has encryption so even if someone were two inches away with a reader, they would learn little.

'There aren't a lot of people doing implants, because there aren't a lot of doctors willing to do the implants,' said Dan Henne, vice-president of Calgary's Phidgets Inc. 'And there is always the unfounded fear that somehow government is going to use this to track people.

'But the technology has its limitations. If you had an entire research group you might be able to read a person's tag a couple of metres away. It takes an awful lot of science to do that.

'I'm sure the CIA would love it but it won't work.'

Aside from the Big Brother and privacy concerns, Dr. Morris VanAndel, registrar of the British Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons said there are no ethical considerations that would prevent a doctor from implanting the chips.

So if your boss tells your doctor to implant your company pass card info into your arm, the answer would be no. But if you're tired of being locked out of the house, or your gym club is threatening to bar you if you forget your pass one more time, an implant could be the answer.

[...]

[CLB: Makes me wonder what form of security model protects both access and information on these implants.]

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The Guardian

[...]

To make a hybrid embryo, a human skin cell would be taken from a person with motor neurone disease and injected into a hollowed-out rabbit egg. The resulting embryo would contain only a tiny amount of rabbit DNA in a microscopic structure that generates energy in the cell. The rest of the DNA would be human. If the experiment is successful, within a week, the egg will have divided to form a tiny ball of a 200 or so cells, from which stem cells could be extracted.

The embryos could not legally be implanted into a woman's womb and the stem cells would not be safe to implant because they would be rejected by the immune system. 'They will never grow beyond the 200 cell stage and they will have no human features,' said Prof Shaw.

The proposal exposes a grey area in British regulation, however, as officials at the HFEA admitted it was questionable whether the resulting embryo was human. 'That's the question and it's for the government, the HFEA and lawyers to work out,' said Prof Shaw.

Josephine Quintavalle of the lobby group Comment on Reproductive Ethics said: 'There is a lot of innate wisdom in the yuk factor, or repugnance as it is also known. My question is: what will they actually create? It is simplistic or deliberately deceptive to say they are simply making stem cells. In order to obtain stem cells they surely have to go through the blastocyst stage; they have to create a 'something' from which to derive the new cells. What is this something? It must be human to be of any use to researchers.'

Professor Sir John Gurdon, a Cambridge University researcher, already uses similar technology to investigate how eggs appear to be capable of converting adult cells into stem cells that can potentially grow into any tissue in the body. His experiments have so far focused on injecting DNA from human cells into frog eggs.

He said: "I don't see there's any ethical problem with what they are proposing. I don't see it as a human embryo, but it all comes back to the question of when you think life begins. Scientifically, though, I'm not persuaded it will work. If you put cells from one species into the egg of another, the egg may divide, but you could get a lot of genetic abnormality that won't lead to good quality stem cells."

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BusinessWeek Online

A generation ago, quants turned finance upside down. Now they're mapping out ad campaigns and building new businesses from mountains of personal data.

[CLB: Interesting editorial on the new elite - mathematicians.]

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