geofencing and defenestration

The always splendid and visionary BLDGBLOG presents an excellent survey of the coming electromagnetic moats that are being created to thwart off the remote controlled cat burglars known as drones.
It ought not come as any surprise that constellation of technologies that enable the good guys to keep us safe also comes off the shelf for the potential deployment and home- invasions, casing the joint from a safe distance. The number of black sites for GPS navigation devices is growing as are signal-jamming equipment create permanent and impromptu force fields. I suspect, however, that whatever counter-measures are implemented, new methods for getting around those drawbridges and portcullises won’t be far behind, including navigation by more traditional methods, orientation without being tethered to a human operator and completely autonomous missions (replete with exhaustive demographics) with no need to report back. I wonder how the the physical façade of suburbia and gated communities, exposed and set apart from the concrete jungles that might provide some natural defenses and more barriers to overcome, might change to support this firewall fortress.

legend

If you travel as much as we do, you might find yourselves outgrowing the standard quiver of icons that come with Google Maps. Adding to the compliment is easy and I have re-coloured the map markers for many future adventurers, distinguished by the broadening palette. Though they are not the sharpest tacks, please feel free to use them (clicking on each icon as the source image for the symbol on your personalised map) or create your own cartographic legend. Keep in mind the parameters for the standard icons are 32 by 32 pixels and use a imaging-program that retains the transparency for portable network graphics (.PNG) format files.

survey sez or keeping up appearances

The discouraging results of a 2012 survey of American's acumen and performance on a battery of basic science questions were revealed just recently and show that a dumbfounding 26% believe that the Sun transits the Earth, rather than the other way around.  These sort of things that the pollsters asked where not just matters of trivia but rather established facts and necessary for the most elementary of further inquiries.
I do, however, wonder why the National Science Foundation delayed releasing the news of the abysmal state of education, having lost a couple years to help correct the matter, and why draw parallels to an even more outdated, yet equally symptomatic and depressing round of questions from European and Asian demographics that fares worse. Having such non-compartmenalised knowledge or disengaged guardians is not what a vengeful Church was to Galileo.  Maybe it was due to all the negative and anti-academic that has mounted against environmentalists over climate change—or perhaps, hopefully (statistics being what they are), these respondents, schooled aright, realised the nature of these trick-questions, though the Earth is not the pivot point of the Sun, that neither does our planet orbits a point negotiated between our star and the rest of the universe. Far fewer still could correctly locate Atlantis on a map. Such optimistic thinking is probably out of line, however, and the outcome is never that skewed.

truth or consequences, new mexico

The label on the Uruguayan wine bottle with dinner informed me that the country’s name “means ‘River of Painted Birds’ in the native language.” I stumbled upon a clever world map that gives an etymology of the names of nations—although I am not entirely sure how accurate some of these are and it is kind of a shame that the map does not explain who Amerigo Vespucci was or how he managed to have two continents named after him (though I suppose the terminally interested could easily look that up in their Funk & Wagnalls’). Incidentally, driving home through France, I wondered why the central region, containing Paris, was called Île-de-France (Island of France), and it turns out that this was probably because of an ancient Gaulish misunderstanding of an Germanic Old Franconian designation for the place--Liddle Franke, little land of the Franks. I think it would be a neat project to make a more local map of derivations and translations, streets and suburbs and towns--sort of like how Bad Karma got its name.