Human Microchipping

I found a humorous Australian video blogger, Whaddyareckon?, who asked people whether they would be willing to have microchips implanted in them to enable things like keyless entry into homes and cars. The technology to implant microchips in animals has been used for years to track pets in case they get lost. One logical extension is to do the same to humans. However, there are several reasons why this will never happen. The first is health concerns. Some animals are more likely to develop cancer and other health problems when implanted with microchips. Most people aren't willing to take the risk that they will be, too. Second, there are easy alternatives. I already walk around with an RFID tag all day at work. Unlike animals, humans have clothing which can be used to support microchips without implanting them under the skin. Finally, other technologies of human recognition have advanced to the point were RFID is not needed for surveillance. Facial recognition technology on video is far enough along that you can be identified in in a photo or video fairly easily without having to go to the expense and risk of being implanted. This technology is already being use regularly for security by casinos and governments. For example, the British government is working on a system to be able to easily track people as they move through their extensive network of public cameras. Human microchipping is generally considered an Orwellian nightmare because of it's probable consequence for enabling surveillance of people's private lives, but it's already here in other technologies. Human don't need to be microchipped or barcoded to be recognized any more. Video cameras and computers are all that's needed to follow your every move.

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Helping the Troops

Dean Kamen and his team of engineers have developed a mind-controlled prosthetic robot arm which is able to be trained to grasp dextrously and delicately in hours. I hope this gets into mass production for those who have lost arms as soon as possible.

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No Fertilization

Saturday seven eggs were retrieved from my ovaries. Only three were mature, but low quality because they were cloudy. None fertilized, so this is officially another failed cycle. I stopped taking the progesterone injections and removed the estrogen patch.

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Honey Bee Deaths Threaten Our Food Supply

I've noticed locally that there do not appear to be nearly as many insects as there used to be. In previous years, the bushes would be full of bees and butterflies that I would spend hours photographing, but over the past year I've seen few of either. More that 25% of the Western honey bee population has disappeared over the last several years and the causes are not clear. One third of the food eaten in the United States is dependent on honey bee pollination. Honey bees provide 80% of US pollination services and support $15 billion in agriculture. If the current rate of honey bee death continues, we may have an even greater food and economic crisis on our hands. Today I donated to the Honey Bee Research Fund at University at California, Davis, after reading about the honey bee crisis at helpthehoneybees.com sponsored by Haagen Dazs. I hope you'll contribute to helping honey bees, too, by donating, planting flowers and/or using honey instead of sugar or artificial sweetener.

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