No email for you ... and you and you

Fighting spam can take many forms. One drastic method is banning internal email altogether.

That's exactly what the CEO of a French IT company has done, saying that the company's 74,000 employees working in 42 countries will have to eschew emailing coworkers in favor of instant messaging, a Facebook-like interface, or plain old face-to-face (which could include teleconferencing, of course).

Why? Spam, apparently.

The company says that of the 200 email messages each employee receives, on average, each day, the percentage of spam is higher than that of business-related (18 to 10). To fix that, the company is on an 18-month journey into email withdrawal. The policy is six months old, and progress is such that the number of internal emails has dropped by 20 percent.

A company spokesperson clarified that the target was internal emails, not emails to clients. This would suggest that the move has more to do with using internal technology — which would not be accessible to spambots. Still, it's a bold move to make for the head of an IT company.

This CEO is Thierry Breton, of the company Atos. A former finance minister, he cheerfully announced that he has not sent one email since becoming the CEO in late 2008. He expects his employees to (eventually) follow that example. 

Yawning? That's to Keep Your Brain from Overheating

You've seen them — the yawners. You're talking and they're listening and then they just yawn, as if what you're saying is the most boring thing they've heard in a million years — or at least in the last 10 minutes. You jump to a conclusion and then get incensed that they think what you're saying is so uninteresting, when what is really happening is that they're acting out of self-preservation. 

No, it's not to keep from keeling over because of boredom — it's actually to keep their brain cool. So says a study in the December issue of Medical Hypotheses. See, a group of scientists got together and spent a whole lot of time thinking about yawns and what they mean and why people experience them and other important things like that. These scientists discovered that people used their sinuses as a sort of bellows, to get cooler air into the brain so it didn't overheat. Your brain, like any other computer, needs a relatively cool temperature in order to process properly.

Think about what happens when you yawn. Better yet, do it. What do your cheeks do? Your mouth is open a bit wider than normal, your sinuses are open a bit more as well; and even though you might appear to exhale, you're also making it possible for cooler air to get into your brain through your sinuses. (Presumably, if you're snotty because your nose is stuffed up, it takes a wider or a longer yawn to get that brain cooled down enough to keep functioning.)

It's the maintenance of proper brain function, apparently, that precipitates the yawn. So the next time you see someone yawn, don't think that you're boring them. You could be having quite the opposite effect — you could be stimulating their brain so much that it's overheating.

Hare It Is: the Eyes of the Future are Here Today

We've seen this before, back in the '70s. Rabbits stormed across the countryside, making it hell for the people who happened to live there. It took a hell of a lot of effort to contain those big furry beasties, and I'm sure that sound-thinking people everywhere don't want a repeat of that hellish performance (no matter how hellishly bad that movie really was).

Not sure this technology would lead to that sort of thing, but you never know, especially with our big-eared furry friends.

Actually, if it's rabbits on the loose, I'd much prefer ones like Harvey or even that giant wooden one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, since that one caused only one fatality in the end. Mind you, the Rabbit of Caerbannog (the one with "big, pointy teeth") was a different matter entirely, but that's beside the point, really, isn't it?)

Anyway, back to the future — or the present, as the case may be — because a group of well-meaning scientists have actually gone and strapped small-pixel displays onto the eyes of rabbits to see if the poor little bunnies could survive the experience. (How would you like it if a group of people in white coats strapped you down and pasted a tiny camera onto your irises? Wouldn't feel too good, now would it?

Or would it? Maybe it would. Maybe it did. After all, we don't have the tapes of what the rabbits said after this was all over. They might have enjoyed it. And the things they might have seen!

They probably didn't see much more out of the ordinary than lights, actually, since the device wasn't large enough to show important things like letters and numbers. That comes later, in the human-sized version, which the scientists swear will be used for nothing so much as monitoring for glaucoma. 

Yeah, right. Anyway, I'm sure that we're years away from any sort of "rabbits rampaging round the countryside" scenes on TV, unless the Lepus return. As for when those scientists get around to making good on their promise to test this sort of thing on humans? Well, we shall wee whether we have time to prepare for the day when someone says, "I'll be back" — and means it. 

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a multicopter

How many propellers does it take to lift a man off the ground? The answer is 16, apparently, if Thomas Senkel is anyone to put stock in, and he obviously is because his multicopter did indeed get off the ground for an entire 90 seconds, which is much longer than Wilbur Wright was in the air at Kitty Hawk. 

It's been more than a century since, of course, so we should be a bit more advanced in our human flight technology. And we are, sort of, with working jetpacks and things. We certainly have more than our fair share of airplanes and helicopters and mass transportation devices. We even have a flying car. But we're a bit lacking in the personal flight category, until now.

Senkel, from Germany, demonstrated his device and its successful maiden flight recently. He used a simple joystick to control the craft, which runs via an electric fly-by-wire system.  The number of blades, 16, is enough to give anyone pause, but you need that many to get enough lift and do enough balancing to make sure that the person doing the flying doesn't end up head-over-heels in a ditch somewhere.

This being the 21st Century, the multicopter is computerized, with onboard devices calculating the exact rotation speed needed to get man and machine up off the ground and hovering in the desired direction. And, just like a helicopter, this one-person device goes up and down to take off and land.

Is it a vision of the future? Probably, if only a precursor. Check out the video here.

Oh no! Another Photo from Mars

So the latest news out of NASA is that they have this photo of sand dunes shifting in the wind.

That's their story. I have my own theory, and it involves a few nightmares.

This latest photo comes from the data banks of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been tooling around the surface of the Red Planet for about six years now. So I guess there's some comfort in that, since if Mars were full of marauding monsters, that poor little orbiter might have been shot down by lasers by now.

I think that's what has happened to the poor little rover that disappeared, actually, since we don't hear much from it anymore these days. It could very well be that the Martians have advanced sufficiently to be able to pick up a giant foot and squash a little robot roaming around the surface of the planet but that the Martians' technology hasn't advanced to Wells-ian heights just yet.

But back to the new photo: It's shifting sands, NASA says, so something is shifting the sand. NASA says that wind is doing the shifting and that wind on the planet's surface must be stronger than previously thought. Right, or something is causing that wind, like a giant monster-driven armored vehicle, oozing exhaust and creating its own tunnel as it marauds about the surface, looking for tiny little robots to crush.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more concerned I am with this photo. Not sure about you, but I think I see something in that photo. Is that really shifting sand, or is that a giant eyebrow? For all we know, we could be looking at a Godzilla-sized Martian monster taking a nap. It sure looks like a face. Remember the famous one (right)?

It's a good thing I'm writing these things down, so I can forget them when I go to bed. You've done that, haven't you — been consumed during the night by thoughts so scary or cumbersome that you have to write them down in order to forget them and go back to sleep? That's my plan, anyway, so I don't have nightmares about invaders from Mars. I'll let you know how I go. Check the posting time on my next blog post.

Dubai in the Diamond Business

I have to say that I'm happy to hear that Dubai is finding some modicum of success in the diamond business. I mean, that oil supply won't last forever. It might take them a bit long, though, to catch up to the Diamond Planet.

The UAE are reporting that Dubai's diamond trade topped $25 billion in the first half of 2011, a 55-percent increase over the 2010 first-six-months total haul. It's important to note, however, that the dollars increase was mostly due to a price increase. But still, the country did see an increase in production nonetheless.

It's a tough business, diamonds. Other countries already do it really, really well. But what Dubai lacks in experience it's willing to make up for in price attractiveness. See, the Russian dealers slap a 23-percent duty on their shipments, along with an 18-percent value added tax. Yes, you know the diamonds and good and ready to be worn or, more probably, kept under glass and lock and key and armed guards. But that's a lot of money to pay for something that Dubai merchants would happily offer you at just a 1-percent duty. Surely what you miss out on in terms of confidence in quality is more than made up for by the drop in overall number of dollars you spend, right? After all, how much of that Russian tack-on is really going back into the diamond production business?

Dubai is also trying to muscle in on Mumbai's territory, building its own diamond boiling center in an attempt to bypass the traditional pathway through India that most diamonds have to follow. And why not keep the precious stones at home until they're ready to be shipped? Which brings to mind the fact that most of those little (or perhaps large) stones are leaving the borders of the country for their final destination, rather than remaining at home. The same can be said of India, of course, but I would think Dubai would want to supplement its rich oil barons' families' wealth with a few more stones and few fewer luxury hotels. Then there's the fight against tradition, which holds that many rich Middle Eastern types are in love with their gold (to the extent that there are gold vending machines). 

So much uphill battle to fight, yet the UAE — and Dubai in particular — certainly have the will and the wherewithal to keep at it until they get it, whatever it in the end may be.

Shine on indeed.

Woman Gets Stolen Bike Back, by Stealing It Herself

Sometimes, the vigilante wins. 

Seems a Boulder, Colo., woman came out of a sports bar one night, expecting to find the bicycle that she had left on the sidewalk while watching a university football game, and discovered that the bike had been stolen. What to do?

Well, the woman might have gotten mad, but she certainly got even.

This woman, who at 25 is definitely is in the new wave of social media and Internet technology-savvy generations, went to Craigslist and found her bike. She knew it was hers because the "owner" had posted a photo in which she recognized the telltale handlebar tape and water bottle holder of her black Trek road bike.

Putting her detective hat on, the woman responded to the posting, seeking a test ride. The "owner," a man, granted the woman a test ride, and the woman took off — taking her bicycle back in the process.

The woman knew where the man lived and so forwarded that information to police, who arrested the man, who admitted the theft. The man, who was all of 18, had no prior record and so was released on bond. Still, he might have learned his lesson.

The police who handled the case were possibly impressed with the woman's savvy, but they did want to make it very clear to her and to the rest of us that the outcome could have very easily been of a darker variety.

Heavens! Is That a Devil We See Before Us?

Better the devil you know …

Turns out that that famous fresco showing a key scene in the life-death cycle of St. Francis of Assisi has all along contained an extra face. A prominent Italian art historian has announced his discovery of the face of a devil-like figure hidden in the clouds of Giotto's frescos, in the Basilica in Assisi. The figure, which can be seen only by peering intently at close-up photographs of the fresco, has, according to the art historian, horns atop its head and a hooked nose and knowingly sly smile on its face.

This might be one of those Rorschach test opportunities, wherein the individual viewer sees what he or she wants to see. Still, if you squint hard enough at the clouds and hold your tongue just right, you can kind of see the outline of the beginnings of what could be something that could be construed as a figure that resembles something that doesn't quite match the overall theme of the fresco.

We're talking about something that was painted a long time ago now. Giotto worked on these things in the 13th Century. We would surely know if someone had added this impish "figure" later on, so we're left with the presumption that the artist added it himself. 

Then the question becomes why. So why, then, would Giotto have included this image but then obscured it? Was it meant to be symbolic, as if the darkness was ever there, waiting for the revered to "fall"? Was it meant to be darkly ironic, as in the silver lining of the cloud was none other than eternal damnation? Was it meant to be a Da Vinci Code-esque clue, leading to an astonishing revelation that has remained hidden all these years?

A more likely explanation, according to art historians, is that the artist was profiling none other than a person for whom he had little regard. In the same way that artists often included their patrons or contemporaries in their works (think School of Athens), the same artists might often paint as unsavory characters men or women they didn't like. So who was on Giotto's hit list?

That is another story.

That Spot Should Not Have Come Out

No good deed goes unpunished.

That's the lesson that we could take away from this latest news out of Germany, that a cleaner destroyed a piece of art worth more than $1 million because it "had a stain."

See, the cleaner, who worked for an art museum in Dortmund, was doing her job. The artwork was on loan from a private collector, so it wasn't normally in the museum. The cleaner was doing her job when she removed what she thought was a stain from Martin Kippenberger's "When It Starts Dripping from the Ceilings." The artwork consisted of a bowl that the artist had discolored by water that ran over bits of wood.

To the untrained eye, it probably looked like a stain. In fact, it was a stain. But the point was that the artist wanted it to be a stain to prove a point, whatever that was.

At any rate, the artist isn't around anymore to complain. (Kippenberger died in 1997.) He is thought by many experts to be one of the most talented artists in recent German memory. But the private collector who owns the work might do a double-take the next time a museum asks for a public viewing.

No word yet on what kind of discipline that the cleaner might face.