Link Collection

Interesting feature article on how Defense Secretary Gates is overhauling the Pentagon, making many enemies inside the DOD and in the defense industry along the way. I agree with many of the changes he has made, especially with the attitude that you should spare nothing to win today's war and not let the future distract you from the present day. It is sad that he had to find out how MRAP could save soldier's lives in Iraq from a USA Today article because the Generals appeared to be more concerned about FCS instead of how soldier's were dying in Iraq:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-10/ff_smartlist_gates?currentPage=all

I didn't realize that dating services in Japan use blood type to make matches, employers use blood type to evaluate job applicants, and blood type is used to judge a person's character:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/sports/baseball/14blood.html?_r=1&ex=1170478800&en=a5b03bdd1777039a&ei=5070

One of the unique features of the swine flu is that young healthy patients are the ones dying from it, where normally flu kills old or weak people. One theory is that the swine flu makes immune systems go out of control, so effective immune systems can result in multiple organ failures:
http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2009/09/why-healthy-young-adults-should-fear-the-swine-flu/

Airlines vow to cut their carbon emissions in half by 2050. This will take about $5 billion to do (good green market opportunity!) that will be paid for via higher air fares:
http://www.asd-network.com/press_detail_B.asp?ID=23287&NID=284998

Scientists developed an "intelligent car" that learns its driver's patterns and can warn the driver about hazards, especially useful at night when visibility may be limited:
http://prensa.ugr.es/prensa/research/verNota/prensa.php?nota=597

Mathematicians have resolved the first one trillion cases of an ancient math problem (congruent numbers for right-angled triangles) via a clever technique for multiplying large numbers. The numbers were so big that they could not even fit into the main memory of their computers!
http://aimath.org/news/congruentnumbers/

Speech application eliminates reading text messages or e-mails while driving--it will read text messages and e-mails aloud. It also automatically responds to all messages, telling senders that the user is driving and will respond after he/she reaches their destination:
http://mobiledevdesign.com/new_applications/speech-applications-texting-0918/

Art galleries are starting to have exhibits featuring cell phone photography:
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/09/21/cell-phone-art-camera-phone-photos-get-a-gallery-or-two/