The Rolling Stones & Augmented Reality

Keeping it real, well actually not at all.

One of the oldest performing rock bands in the world is the first to launch an augmented reality campaign for their latest album.

Using the new Layar platform, Rolling Stones fans are able to mythologise the band in augmented reality application like no other.

To promote the Stone's campaign called 'Exile on Your St' (and commemorating the re-lease of 'Exile On Main St' originally released in 1972), the band worked in collaboration with Augment Reality out of the UK and Polydor Records who utilized the Layar platform to create a one-of-kind app.

The app that can be downloaded on iPhones (3GS & iPhone 4) and Droid smart phones comes complete with a track of your choice and the ability to create a virtual poster on billboards, workplaces, famous landmarks or even in your own backyard.

Once a virtual poster is laid down by one user, other users with the same app will be able to view the virtual posters wherever they were place in the real world - via their smart phone viewers. They will also be able to attach a 30 second audio clip from the album's 28 tracks to image.

Since Layar is a location-based social network service it allows users within a 2km radius to view the posters, listen to the clips and add their own comments.

The future is here.

http://www.augmentreality.co.uk/blog/exile-on-your-street
http://site.layar.com/company/blog/layer-of-the-week-rolling-stones


News Radicals.

New Oil Seep Discovered

The greasy Gulf.

An oil seep near the ruptured BP wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico is casting new uncertainty over BP’s temporary success in plugging the leak.

Oil stopped flowing from the well on Thursday after BP successfully installed a containment cap.

However, US officials say oil and gas has begun seeping from the sea floor, leading to fears of another hole in the well that could make the spill even worse.

BP wants to keep the cap in place and has been granted additional time to conduct testing.

Money comes first.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/19/2957808.htm


News Radicals.

Healthy Facts

• There are 2.5 trillion (give or take) of red blood cells in your body at any moment. To maintain this number, about two and a half million new ones need to be produced every second by your bone marrow.
• The average red blood cell lives for 120 days.
• Considering all the tissues and cells in your body, 25 million new cells are being produced each second.
  
• Nerve Impulses travel at over 400 km/hr (25 m/hr).
• A red blood cell can circumnavigate your body in under 20 seconds.
• A sneeze generates a wind of 166 km/hr (100 m/hr), and a cough moves out at 100 km/hr (60 m/hr).
• Our heart beats around 100,00 times every day.
• Our blood is on a 60,000-mile journey.
• Our eyes can distinguish up to one million colour surfaces and take in more information than the largest telescope known to man.
• Pap smear for cervical cancer is the single best cancer screening procedure
• Lifetime risk of an American man developing an invasive cancer is 45%
• Our lungs inhale over two million litres of air every day, without even thinking. They are large enough to cover a tennis court.
• Most poisonings involve medicines, vitamins, home-care products, illegal drugs, plants and metals such as mercury.
• The five types of poison exposures include ingestion through the mouth, inhalation through the nose or mouth, through the eyes (ocular), through the skin (dermal) or through stings or bites (parenteral).
• It is estimated that 70,000 children under 15 develop type 1 diabetes each year (200 children a day).
• There are about 250 million people with diabetes in the world
• Is kissing good for your health? Apparently so, the extra saliva that is exchanged reduces decay of teeth by keeping your mouths clean.
• Can you lose calories by merely kissing? Apparently so, you lose 26 calories if you kiss for a minute and 260 if you did it for 10 minutes.
• Each year about 56 million people die around the world.
• 20,000 people in the world die daily due to cancer
• Cancers of the Lung, Prostate and Stomach are the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men
• Relative risk of a smoker developing lung cancer is 23 times higher than that of a non-smoker.
• Heart disease is still the no.1 Killer in the world.

News Radicals.

Drink Up

Alcohol is good for you.

When we speak of alcohol consumption we typically talk about it with regard to how it can affect a person’s health negatively or even destroy a person’s life when it is abused. However, some studies do show that there is a correlation with moderate drinking of alcohol and better health.

Studies that involved cardiac specific diseases show that individuals who consume moderate amounts of alcohol regularly show less arterial closure and those who do not drink at all. This means that a moderate, regular drinker could decrease the possibility of heart disease by up to 50%.

The encouraging news with regard to alcohol is blunted by the fact that it is very hard to walk the line between moderates, regular alcohol consumption and either infrequent or excessive alcohol drinking. For example, occasional drinkers lose alcohol benefits because their consumption is inconsistent. On the other hand, people that consume three or more drinks every day quickly lose the health benefits that were examined in the study.

Considering the dangers that are imposed by consuming alcohol, it is hard to endorse alcohol drinking as a benefit to one’s health. People with a personal or family history of alcoholism or other similar diseases that are heightened by alcohol use such as liver disease etc. should continue to avoid the consumption of alcohol.

Overall, well moderate and regular consumption of small doses of alcohol may be beneficial with respect to cardiac health, the risks outweigh the benefits.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/why-its-good-for-you/2005/11/16/1132016863068.html

http://eating.health.com/2008/01/30/is-alcohol-really-good-for-you/

http://www.drgourmet.com/health/alcohol.shtml

News Radicals.

The Price of Security

x + z + y = National Intelligence spending.

The United States intelligence community has hit back at a report suggesting the counter-terrorism bureaucracy, set up after the September 11 attacks, is too big and too costly.

A two-year investigation by the Washington Post newspaper says the effectiveness of the system designed to keep the US safe is impossible to determine.

But several intelligence agencies are defending their work, pointing out there has not been a successful major terrorist attack since those on September 11, 2001.

William Arkin is co-author of the report, which says the national security apparatus is "so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no-one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it, or exactly how many agencies do the same work".

Arkin says questions must be raised over whether the counter-terrorism system provides value for money and increased safety.

"One of the things we've learned in this two-year investigation is that the evidence shows that no-one really is in a position of confidence to say that we are safer today than we were 10 years ago," he said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/07
http://blog.taragana.com/politics/2010/07/19/


News Radicals.

Spanish Burqa Ban

Spain to debate burqa ban

SPANISH MPs will debate barring burqas in public, joining other European countries considering similar moves on the grounds that the body-covering garments are degrading to women, the leading opposition party says.

Top officials of the ruling Socialist Party today indicated they will support the proposal by the opposition Popular Party, making a ban likely unless the country's highest court rules it unconstitutional.

A debate in Spain's Lower House has been set by the Popular Party for Tuesday or Wednesday, the party said.

Head-covering veils would not be included in a ban as they form a part of traditional Spanish dress, with women often covering their heads with a garment called a mantilla, especially during church services in the south of the country.

Other European nations that have debated regulating the use of body-covering burqas or face-covering niqabs include Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

A notable exception has been Britain, where Immigration Minister Damian Green described calls to outlaw such garb as "un-British".

"Telling people what they can and can't wear, if they're just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

"We're a tolerant and mutually respectful society."

France's Lower House of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a ban on wearing burqa-style Islamic veils on July 13 in an effort to define and protect French values, a move that angered many in the country's large Muslim community.

The French ban on burqas and niqabs goes before Senate in September amid predictions it will pass, but its biggest hurdle could come when France's constitutional watchdog scrutinises it later.

Britain and France have sizable Muslim minorities that they have sometimes struggled to integrate. Differences over dress - in particular the stark-looking niqab, usually an all-back garment which leaves only the eyes visible - often serve as touchstones for wider discussions about Islam, identity, and immigration.

A British Conservative MP has just tabled a French-style bill that would outlaw the niqab, but the bill hasn't received any support for the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition and isn't likely to get very far.

Belgium's Lower House approved a ban on face-covering veils, but it must still be ratified by its upper chamber.

The Netherlands debated banning burqas four years ago and may yet outlaw attire that is considered as demeaning to women.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/07/proposed-burqa-ban-moves-forward-in-spain.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article


News Radicals.