some interesting stuff is going on at the lancaster university. there is this nano project: nanotechnology, risk and sustainability: moving public engagement upstream. results should be out next year.

as there will be a workshop on ethnographies of code. maybe it's time for a follow up on the story quick and dirty, good code, bad code. would be fun, though.

as the work of monika büscher on social impact of design for the PalCom project: palpable computation through manifestation, translation and amplification - if i understood it right. nicenicenice.

i will be able to respond to micro-l. today i still don't understand why they have to call it micro¿?

Humans are a visual-centric species ... Scientists' desire to see ever smaller details helped drive the development of sophisticated microscopes, but their utility for biologists was always constrained by the amount of contrast that could be generated between biological features. (nature|methods|editorial)

by reading about a japanese project about ultra sonic tags added to

wheelchairs to monitor and analyze behavior patterns of residents, such as the time and frequency of use of the bathroom, to aid its caregivers.

a 24hour monitoring system. these kind of things don't come with a switch off button these days anyhow. or:

the construction firm Ando has thrown its support behind a research effort to develop a system that would rely on sensors to warn condo owners when they have created enough noise to disturb people living beneath them. (Nikkei Weekly via acm)

or the kompetenznetze germany awarded things as "ovu'love"

Das Produkt liest den Wert des luteinisierenden Hormons, das die Hirnanhangdrüse ausschüttet, wenn eine Frau kurz vor dem Eisprung steht, binnen Sekunden und mittels Photospektrometrie durch die Haut ab. Der aktuelle Hormonwert teilt sich durch Lichteffekte auf der transluzenten Oberfläche des Gerätes mit: In Phasen, in denen eine Empfängnis möglich ist, pulsiert sie in sanften Rottönen ...

to they really think that stuff is useful and great? i think they are getting more stupid, ready to reduce human social behaviour to a minimum. i think the misconception - as said often - lies in the notion to try to understand machines as better humans and reducing people to stupid out of contact aliens. well, that's easy anyhow. somehow still not further as minsky's 60s, pff ...

recall tron, or go to: itu news: "machines and objects to overtake humans on the internet"; and if you still can go on with old fantasies, take this: zigbee