Online Activity Is Used to Judge Your Character

22 April, 2012 at 08:33 | Posted in IT and Media, Society, Technology | Leave a comment
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By Jose Rivera
Epoch Times Staff

The online world has integrated itself into our lives, with email, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs where we share with our friends. We have grown accustomed to using the Internet to share updates of our activities, talk about news, and catch up with those we haven’t seen in a while. It’s a wonderful tool to update, inform, and record all the things we are involved in, doing or going through.

But it also does something else, something we may not have intended to happen—universities, potential employers, and law enforcement can use those very tools as windows into your world, and get a sense of your true character.

According to a Careerbuilder survey conducted in 2009, 45 percent of employers use social media sites to research job candidates. This is up from just twenty-two percent the year before.

Your conduct at an interview and the information you presented in your application are not the only things being used to screen you. Now, all the information you posted, liked, and shared with others—including pictures, videos, and web pages—are also part of that screening.

Your digital life has crossed over and is very tangibly interconnected to your real life.

One element that’s looked at is your list of connections. You are not just an individual anymore. You are a walking, talking, breathing brand, and what you do reflects on the schools you attended, the places you work, and the organizations you belong to. It is important to them that you represent them well in any and every setting—including the digital setting.

According to the latest Jobvite survey, 89 percent of U.S. companies will use social networks for recruiting. This number is up from the previous survey. Other parts measure the quality of candidates—and social networking determined seven out of the ten possible points measuring the quality of the candidate.

It is easier to see how your online social presence is now becoming your personal branding platform. It is no longer about updates to what you did last night, or last week, and it is becoming more a place where you can market yourself to potential schools, employers, and volunteer groups. And the way things are going, there may be many more people in the future checking your Facebook status to see what you are up to.

via Online Activity Is Used to Judge Your Character | Cyber Security | Technology | Epoch Times

Related Articles: Facebook Helps Researchers See How Friendships Form

Super-Buoyant Material Mimics Water Striders

3 April, 2012 at 08:12 | Posted in Environmental issues, Science, sustainable development, Technology | Leave a comment
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Application includes oil spill cleanup devices

By David Skoumbourdis
Epoch Times Staff

Imagine an ultra lightweight material so buoyant that a one-pound boat constructed from it could carry 1,000 pounds–equivalent to five kitchen fridges.

This amazing technology has now been derived from plant cellulose by Finnish scientists. It is also environmentally friendly, strong, flexible, and one of the lightest solid substances in the world.

The material was designed to mimic the feet of a water strider, an insect capable of walking on water, and is made of a nanocellulose-based “aerogel.” Aerogels can be produced from a variety of sources, such as silica in beach sand, with some being so light, they are referred to as “solid smoke.”

“These materials have really spectacular properties that could be used in practical ways,” said researcher Olli Ikkala at Helsinki University of Technology in a media release.

Suggested applications range from toys and miniaturized military robots to sensors for detecting pollution and devices to clean up oil spills. The material can absorb vast amounts of oil without sinking.

According to Ikkala, the material is environmentally sustainable as cellulose is the most abundant polymer on Earth. Cellulose is the main component of plant stems, leaves, and roots, and is what gives wood its strength.

Traditionally, cellulose has been used commercially to produce paper and textiles. But the development of highly processed nanocellulose has expanded its application to advanced structural materials similar to metals.

“It can be of great potential value in helping the world shift to materials that do not require petroleum for manufacture,” Ikkala explained. “The use of wood-based cellulose does not influence the food supply or prices, like corn or other crops.”

“We are really delighted to see how cellulose is moving beyond traditional applications, such as paper and textiles, and finding new high-tech applications.”

The findings were presented at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. The symposium focused on an emerging field called biomimetics, in which scientists draw inspiration from nature, adapting biological systems in plants and animals for application in fields such as medicine and industry.

via Super-Buoyant Material Mimics Water Striders | Inspiring Discoveries | Science | Epoch Times

Related Articles: Biomimicry: Turning to Nature for Answers

The Digital Dressing Room

19 March, 2012 at 07:07 | Posted in Society, Technology | Leave a comment
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New online software brings the dressing room into your living room

By Sarita Rosenhaus
Epoch Times Staff

You coveted those adorable jeans on the website for so long, yet you can’t tell if they’re going to fit you. Wouldn’t it be great if you could try them on before buying them? The Berlin-based company UPcload says that now you can.

Initiating a new era of e-fashion, the UPcload passport allows users to create an online profile of their dimensions and styling preferences, ensuring that “clothing items bought online fit ‘offline,’” according to the company’s press kit.

Using a webcam and an ordinary CD, the photo-recognition software determines the customer’s sizing and dimensions without requiring any fancy scanning equipment. Best of all, creating the passport takes 10 minutes and only needs to be done once.

The company says that this deceptively simple body-measuring system will give a perfect fit each time, no matter what the brand, eliminating the hassle of returns by taking the guesswork out of sizing. The customer’s profile acts as the “passport” to participating online retailers, which offer recommendations based on the measurements.

It will also allow consumers to buy clothes for family and friends, see a visualization of the buyer wearing the items through the Dutch program MimicMe, and even help determine which items go together.

Two friends and graduates of Berlin’s Humboldt University—Asaf Moses, a 29-year-old Israeli, and Sebastian Schulze, 25, who is German—developed the idea in January 2010 after they discovered their mutual frustration from buying poorly fitting merchandise online and not being able to return it.

UPcload, a blend of the words “upload” and “clothes,” has since been voted start-up of the year and has won over $200,000 in prize money and government grants, according to a press release.

The technology behind the company is anything but simple. Developed for the military and semiconductor industries by the Israeli company Imagu, the image-analysis algorithms hone in on images at the subpixel level, which is more precise than standard object-recognition software, giving measurements that “are on average more accurate than those taken by a professional tailor,” Moses told BusinessWeek.

Launching next month, UPcload has already partnered with The North Face and has plans to expand to other stores and markets, like shoes.

Retailers that choose to use the software carry a widget on their sites, linking them to UPcload’s confidential database. Users will be able to log in to the UPcload box on the retailer’s website and will then be told whether the items they are considering are likely to fit. For example, if UPcload knows the buyer has a 34-inch waist and likes loose-fitting pants, it will know to suggest that the jeans would be too snug for that person’s taste.

If that’s not enough, Moses and Schulze are not just tackling the Internet—up next, they will be sending body measurements via mobile devices like smartphones. This innovation will help shoppers avoid taking multiple items to the changing room. Instead, they can scan the bar code to know which items will fit best.

Of course, many shoppers will still want to see, feel, and try on their clothes in person, but UPcload is banking on it that many may increasingly venture into online shopping when there’s less risk involved.

According to a press release, 40 percent of online clothing purchases wind up as returns. UPcload hopes to bring that number down and increase clothing sales, a very promising prospect for companies and customers who are willing to try it on for size.

via The Digital Dressing Room | Fashion & Beauty | Life | Epoch Times

Related Articles: GRAPHISOFT: Visualizing Data Into 3-D Models

Cell Phone Study Alarming

19 September, 2011 at 11:24 | Posted in Body & Mind, Children, Environmental issues, Technology | Leave a comment
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By Susanne Larsson
Epoch Times Staff

The use of mobile phones is increasing among children and adolescents. Experts warn of the dangers, since children are more vulnerable to radiation.

In a recent study, an international research team concluded that mobile-phone use among children does not increase the risk of developing brain tumors.

Parents who might be breathing a sigh of relief at this should think twice. According to one Swedish expert, we cannot trust these results, and she is not the only one saying so.

According to professor Maria Feychting, Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institute (KI), who led the Swedish part of the Cefalo study, the results show no increased risk of developing a brain tumor among young cell phone users.

The basis for this study is standardized interviews with 352 children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 19 in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland who have developed brain tumors between 2004 and 2008.

Participants were asked about their mobile-phone habits. The responses were then compared with the cell-phone habits of 646 healthy control individuals of the same age. The results from the study were published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Results showed that children who had their own cell-phone subscriptions for more than 2.8 years were more than twice as likely to develop brain tumors.

Journalist and author Mona Nilsson has followed cell-phone risk studies for many years, and she does not find the results of the Cefalo study reassuring.

On the contrary, the results are very worrying. The study shows the opposite, that mobile-phone use increases the risk of brain tumors, even at relatively low use by today’s standards.

Nilsson believes that the scientists dismiss their own findings in the study and that these are the same scientists who tried to smooth over the increased brain-tumor risk in the international WHO study a year ago.

Read more: Cell Phone Study Alarming | Health | Epoch Times

Chinese Internet Control: A Wide Range of Methods

10 September, 2011 at 15:58 | Posted in China, human rights, persecution, Technology | Leave a comment
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By Shannon Liao
Epoch Times Staff

Reporters without Borders released on Wednesday a collection of recent Chinese Communist Party attempts at Internet censorship.

The techniques range from unleashing cyber-attacks; forcing Internet cafes to purchase expensive software or swear off the Internet; planning a children’s censorship program; closing blog accounts of unwieldy users; ordering the private sector around; and arresting netizens.

The report cites the first piece of evidence that the Chinese military engages in cyber warfare. Initially reported by The Epoch Times, the evidence is found in a July 17 CCTV documentary. The documentary briefly showed a screen with writing on the top that says “Select Attack Target” and a drop-down list of Falun Gong websites.

Internet cafes in China now have to choose between paying around $3,100 to get a severely censored version of the Internet, or becoming regular cafes that run without Wi-Fi.

Several netizens were arrested this year, including Hu Di, who went missing in March. Despite being healthy, he was placed in a mental hospital—one of the Chinese regime’s methods of silencing dissent.

A Chinese lawyer lost his wife and his house after he posted a Jasmine Revolution message on Twitter.

Ding Mao and Chen Wei are two other netizens who are still detained. Liu Geng-song, a fourth netizen, was released on August 23 after a four-year prison term.

Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of all arrested netizens and mentions that China is on the their list of Enemies of the Internet.

via Chinese Internet Control: A Wide Range of Methods | Technology | Epoch Times

Paris Air Show Highlights Biofuels

22 June, 2011 at 05:35 | Posted in Environmental issues, Science, sustainable development, Technology | Leave a comment
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Industry Sees Positive Developments

By Nicholas Zifcak
Epoch Times Staff

Biofuels are getting a lot of attention this week at the Paris Air Show. Airlines have shown their support of the technology and its viability with Honeywell and Boeing planes using a blend of biofuel and conventional jet fuel.

Honeywell called the flight on Sunday of its Gulfstream G450 jet from New Jersey to Paris, “the first-ever transatlantic biofuel flight” in history.

Meanwhile, Boeing flew its new 747 freighter from Seattle to Paris on a blend of conventional jet fuel and 15 percent camelina-based biofuel, also vying to be first to fly the Atlantic on biofuel. Boeing says the use of biofuels will substantially reduce carbon emissions.

The show also included a special exhibition area for alternative aviation fuels.

Also this week, seven airlines announced their intentions to work with biofuel producer, Solena Fuels, to provide fuel for their flights out of the San Francisco Bay area. Solena’s fuel is made from a multistep process that starts with recycled urban and agricultural wastes.

Read more: Paris Air Show Highlights Biofuels | World | Epoch Times

Airbus Concept Plane Features See-Through Cabin

17 June, 2011 at 08:09 | Posted in Technology | Leave a comment
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By Alex Johnston
Epoch Times Staff

Airbus released computer-generated images and video this week of what flying might look like in the next 40 years.

The French-based company unveiled its concept plane with a transparent fuselage, which will allow customers to gaze at the night sky or down below.

The company unveiled the concept in Paris on Tuesday, generating much Internet buzz in the meanwhile, ahead of the “Le Bourget” Paris Air Show next week.

In a statement released to go with its so-called Concept Cabin, the company said the design is “inspired by nature.

“The aircraft’s bionic structure mimics the efficiency of bird bone which is optimised to provide strength where needed, and allows for an intelligent cabin wall membrane which controls air temperature and can become transparent to give passengers open panoramic views,” the release stated.

It will be constructed with 100 percent recyclable materials made from plant fibers, it added. The cabin will also feature seats that adjust to the passengers’ body shape.

Airbus said that there will be a “Vitalizing Zone” for relaxing, complete with aromatherapy, acupressure, and mood lighting.

Read more: Airbus Concept Plane Features See-Through Cabin | Technology | Epoch Times.

Study on Cell Phone Dangers Prompts Major Call for School Bans

5 June, 2011 at 11:54 | Posted in Body & Mind, Children, Environmental issues, Science, Technology | Leave a comment
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Ban mobile phones and wireless networks in schools, say European leaders – The Telegraph

NaturalNews

An influential European committee known as the Council of Europe has ruled that cell phones and wireless internet connections pose a risk to human health and should subsequently be banned from schools. The committee concluded that immediate action was necessary to protect the children from the potential dangers, releasing a report that acts as a call to arms. The decision comes after mounting evidence has linked mobile phones, in addition to electromagnetic fields, to a number of harsh health ailments. With such a powerful group calling for bans on harmful electronics, it is highly possible that it will not only become law in the European Union, but across the globe as well.

Read more: Study on cell phone dangers prompts major call for school bans- NaturalNews

Also: New research confirms that radiation from mobile transmitters stresses the brain

Energy Saving Light Bulbs ‘contain cancer causing chemicals’

4 June, 2011 at 07:54 | Posted in Body & Mind, Environmental issues, Science, sustainable development, Technology | Leave a comment
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Fears have been reignited about the safety of energy saving light bulbs after a group of scientists warned that they contain cancer causing chemicals.

Their report advises that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head, as they emit poisonous materials when switched on.

Peter Braun, who carried out the tests at the Berlin’s Alab Laboratory, said: “For such carcinogenic substances it is important they are kept as far away as possible from the human environment.”

The bulbs are already widely used in the UK following EU direction to phase out traditional incandescent lighting by the end of this year.

Read more: Energy saving light bulbs ‘contain cancer causing chemicals’ – Telegraph

New Recharger Harnesses the Power of Alkali Metals

4 March, 2011 at 15:35 | Posted in Environmental issues, Nature, Science, sustainable development, Technology, Travels | Leave a comment
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By Kat Piper
Epoch Times Staff

The work of a “retired” chemistry professor has led to the discovery of a new, clean, green instant energy source that can power a portable electronics charger.

Aimed at the outdoor enthusiast, the charger could also prove valuable to residents of Third World countries where electricity is not always readily available, said the developers.

James Dye joined Michigan State University (MSU) in 1953. He officially retired nearly 17 years ago, but continues to frequent the lab in the chemistry department’s basement, inspiring undergraduate students with his love of chemistry.

For 50 years Dye has worked with alkali metals—a group of highly reactive elements including sodium and lithium that are known for being dangerous to store and work with. Dye found a way to stabilize alkali metals with silicon, turning them into a safe powder.

“In our lab, we were able to produce alkali metal silicides, which basically are made from sodium and silicon, which, in turn, are produced from salt and sand,” Dye said in an MSU press release.

“By adding water to sodium silicide, we’re able to produce hydrogen, which creates energy for fuel cells. The byproduct, sodium silicate, is also green. It’s the same stuff found in toothpaste.”

Last month, the company Dye co-founded, SiGNa Chemistry Inc., unveiled its new Mobile-H2 hydrogen cartridges, which are the energy source for the pocket-sized PowerTrekk, a wireless portable electronics charger developed by Swedish fuel cell technology company myFC.

Read more: New Recharger Harnesses the Power of Alkali Metals | Technology | Epoch Times

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