Marty's journal

Facebooking might get you fired

noreply@blogger.com (Marthinus) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:40:00 +0000

Hi there.

I saw this article and thought it was pretty hectic. Getting fired for being on Facebook while being off sick… That’s crazy! I sometimes lay around at home and then update my status on Twitter (I don't do this ALL the time, but there are times)… Twitter will then automatically update my Facebook status (some add-in I set up in Facebook). I then just thought, imagine this would happen to me. Imagine I am sick a day… then update my status “I am feeling SO sick”… this will then go to my Facebook account, which would seem like I am active on Facebook. This can’t be good.

Apparently the employee was sick at home. She then did some things on Facebook, which her employer got to hear about. This destroyed the employer’s faith in her faithfulness, so now she is without a job.

This is just strange, but I’m sure they must have checked that she was very busy on Facebook and didn't just update her status, but still, I’m sure one can be at home, feel sick and check your Facebook account. This doesn't take a lot a brain power, whereas to work takes a lot more effort. Anyways… I think my status changing is safe – but to all of us – BE WARNED – I’m sure this was just one of many.

To read the full story click here.

Space Smells Funny

noreply@blogger.com (Marthinus) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:36:00 +0000

According to Astronauts, space smells funny. Ha! I thought it was something worth mentioning on my blog – since I have always been interested in space.

My wife knows that I would like to walk on the moon one day (any sponsors?). But until that day I will have to just read up and believe what the people who actually DO go into space have to say about it.

Apparently as they come back from space – as they move from the outer to the inner hatch, the smell of space enters OR stuck to their space suites. In this manner they know what space smalls like.

They say it smells different to anything else. Some say it smells like ozone or gunpowder. They say its not easy to explain but it has a faint acrid smell. It could be similar to burnt gunpowder or the ozone smell of electrical equipment.

Well – hopefully one day I will be able to confirm this, but till then I will just dream big.

Read the full story here.

Up, up and away!

noreply@blogger.com (Marthinus) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:23:00 +0000

All you need is a £56 camera and balloon and you can capture images from out of space! :)

Some teenagers used only a camera and latex balloon (and lots of brainpower) to capture pics from outer space from 20 miles above earth.

They got help from one of their teachers and decided to do this little project which took photos and atmospheric readings 20 miles above the ground. This experiment was completed at the end of February this year.

View there photographs here.

I got the story here.

'Atlantis' spotted on Google Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Marthinus) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:42:00 +0000

I don't know about this, but it does make for some interesting reading.

A British man has claimed to have spotted the lost civilisation of Atlantis using Google Earth.

Images show that there is a rectangular area filled with criss-crossing parallel lines on the sea bed, more than three miles below the surface.

Plato described Atlantis as an island civilisation that sunk into the sea because of flooding caused by an earthquake. It surely makes me think of the worldwide flood recorded in the first book of the Bible - Genesis.

It has been the subject of speculation for many ages as to where Atlantis may now lie, if it did ever exist.

Military Robots to learn warrior code

noreply@blogger.com (Marthinus) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:14:00 +0000

When you read articles like these, it seems like the days of “The Terminator” are not TOO far away. For those amongst us who always hoped it would stay a science-fiction movie only might experience something different not too far in the future.

As one of the commentators on this article notes, if we as people can’t even get ethics right – how will robots. I think it will be quite a LOT of coding before they will be able to code robots to battle in war the way we want them to. For humans I know that only the grace of God will teach us to live life in an ethical way.

When it comes to robots one can think about a lot of possible problems. Just think about all the viruses we find on our computers. Imagine what could go wrong with the robots. Imagine if hackers get hold of them.

Well – the US military wants to have more and more unmanned combat vehicles in the not too distant future. I guess this made them look into the strict warrior codes which they want all robots to follow.

I guess we will only have to wait and see what happens.

You can read the full story here.

Eclipse seen from moon as earth blocks the sun

noreply@blogger.com (Marthinus) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:08:00 +0000

Japan’s lunar orbiter send back an amazing movie of the earth eclipsing the sun as seen from the moon.

This was the first time that this was captured from the moon. I just find it awesome to be able to see something as phenomenal as this.

You can view the video and photos here.

TED: MIT Students Turn Internet Into a "Sixth Human Sense"

noreply@blogger.com (Marthinus) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:20:00 +0000

I thought this was pretty amazing. It can be a bit dangerous to have so much info about people around you - but the other applications to this can be AMAZING!

Students at the MIT Media Lab have developed a wearable computing system that turns any surface into an interactive display screen. The wearer can summon virtual gadgets and internet data at will, then dispel them like smoke when they're done.

It can for instance "look" at a book and then project the rating of the book on the book cover. It can also be used to take instant photos and then use a wall or any other flat surface to edit / organize the photos you took. It can even recognize people you see and display data about them on their t-shirt (this can be quite alarming to some). I think all in all it could be part of a nice new technology.

See the full story and videos here.