Privacy does it exist?

The Internet provides a wealth of information for people to go trawling through, some of this is simple enough with information about chemical formula's. Some of it is more complex, how to build a bomb (not recommended reading given the current political climate). Some of this information is more personal in nature and is posted for a specific purpose. Some people out there abuse the information that is made available over the internet and think it is amusing to post it around the school! Some like the NSA apparently think it's a great way to see who we connect to and they have started research into looking at how to use web based information and phone links to connect the dots between individuals and black listed organisations.

Many of us have heard of degrees of separation, where you have to use some kind of connections through various people to link one person to another, say Elton John and Gerraint Jones (that's fairly easy as Elton John played at the St. Laurence ground last weekend, the St. Laurence ground is the home to Kent County Cricket Club and finally Gerraint Jones plays for Kent sometimes!) The NSA are going to play this game on a much grander scale, how many degrees of separation are there between you and let's say Al Queda?!?

Try putting your name in quote into google and see what comes out as well, you might be surprised at how much information about you is available online. Some of that information is of course intended for the general public to know, other bits of information are intended for a select few to get a hold of. When individuals think it amusing to take private information and paste it for public viewing it's called invasion of privacy.

Think carefully about what you put online and where you put it. Also think about the consequences of your actions at all times.

Baby with third arm!?!

Well I just read a new post from yahoo news and it made me wonder how many babies are born in the world with three arms. The news article (which can be found here: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06062006/323/doctors-china-remove-baby-s-third-arm.html ) reports is as if it was a regular occurance! The third arm has been successfully removed by the surgeons in China, but how many other babies are born each year with such a deformation? On ABC's news website Dr. Larry Hollier has said that there are no reliable statistics to say how common extra limbs or extremeties are, especially since malformed fetuses are often aborted either spontaneously or surgically and therefore are not reported accurately.
(Picture from ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2021142&page=1

Huge Storms to Collide

Two of the largest storms in the Solar System are going to collide at the beginning of next month, at least according to NASA. Thankfully these storms are to be found on Jupiter! The Great Red Spot of Jupiter is about to meet is younger and smaller rival. What's going to happen is unknown, two previous near misses between the Great Red Spot and Red Spot Jr. have failed to provide any kind of show. However things have changed for this passing as Red Spot Jr. has recently changed colour from white to red, an indication of stronger winds in the core of the storm. NASA Scientist Amy Simon-Miller of the Goddard Space Flight Center suggests that "the Great Red Spot will push Oval BA [Red Spot Jr.] toward a southern jet stream, which is blowing against the oval's counterclockwise rotation." This would slow Oval BA's spin, possibly reversing the process that reddened it in the first place.

More details and pictures at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/05jun_redperil.htm?list855910