Security

While the debate on privacy continues to rage on at home and abroad, it has not hindered Facebook from scaling to a half billion users this past week. With only China and India's populations larger, Facebook is the third largest 'nation' in the world? But with no land to defend and a citizenry not bound by any government, how could a social network rank third in followers globally?

From Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi district - known in India for its plethora of pickpockets - comes Shyam Chaurasia and his design for a pair of jeans that gives thieves the jolt of their life.

This bike lock does a whole lot more than sit and look intimidating to criminals. It lets you know if and when your bike is being stolen, unleashing a much more intimidating form of security: you and your trusty Louisville Slugger.

This prickly park bench by design student Fabian Brunsing is a real pain in the butt... unless you pay first.

Airline Passengers are learning they don't have to stop social networking just because they left Terra Firma and are hovering at altitudes of 30K above the ground. Virgin America is the first to introduce a Bluetooth-style seat-to-seat chat system that allows passengers to connect with fellow travelers throughout the aircraft.

While Mark Zuckerberg is panicking in the US over privacy issues and a new movie portraying him as a social networking version of Ivan the Terrible, Facebook users across the pond have cause for another type of panic. This week it was announced that Facebook in the UK will allow a "panic button" application on its site to ward off cyberbullying and sexual predators.

A possible bike of the future, this interesting bike wraps itself into locking position and helps put a dent in bike theft.

Time for an earthquake? Seiko has got just what you need: sensor-equipped clocks that light up when temblors set your house (and yourself) trembling.

It's said that a good spy knows how to blend in. And what better way in today's society to accomplish that, than to be prominently active on a number of social networks. Anna Chapman, one of alleged spies recently picked up in NYC knew how to work social networks almost as well as she did in staying below the government's radar.

International diplomacy has never been Google's strong suit. But based on it's size and number of global netizens that use its engine exclusively for search, it has always seen itself as a powerhouse in getting what it wants.

I speculated recently about the amount of lithium recently found in Afghanistan - like oil in Iraq - could become the number one resource for the war to continue in that country. In a post, titled, "The Smartphone Wars Seek Trillion Dollar Spoils," I believe that mobile phone manufacturers will compete heavily to secure this resource. In the Congo, a similar scenario has already played out with 'conflict minerals' with more dire consequences.

Computers are not only saving trees these days -  they have almost eliminated any need for the traditional 'paper trail' we were so accustomed to using just a short decade ago. In the year 2010, wherever you travel throughout the social media space, you're leaving digital breadcrumbs for all to follow.

It's hard enough dealing with Twitter's Fail Whale on a daily basis, and the number of phishing attacks occurred on Facebook - now, we might have to contend with the possibility of both networks being turned off with one flip of a switch? When did Big Brother relocate to the States?

Do you know how many of us old folks have bad knees, bad hips, bad vision, and terrible problems with balance?  A lot of us, and though I admit I don't know the exact numbers on these old-age infirmities, I can tell you that this S² Liner designed by Cheol Min Park is what we need to protect us at home.

The HyGreen by Xhale is a device that detects alcohol-based cleansers that are used in hospitals.  To ensure that hands are properly cleansed between patients, hospital staff hold their soapy hands under the HyGreen sensor and the gadget will clear the worker to move on to the next patient.

As oil was one of the major factors for our six-year tour of duty in Iraq, the vast deposits of minerals recently found in Afghanistan may have the same type of effect in protracting our stay in that country.

Worthy of a George Clooney spy movie (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, comes to mind), the intrigue of this story is riveting. Unraveling across continents, high levels of government, potential treason and investigative journalism are all intertwined and unfolding in real-time through social media channels that might eventually expose cover-ups in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.

As much as Facebook is engaged in its own skirmishes on US turf regarding privacy, the social networking platform is fighting an entirely different battle in Afghanistan. Facebook IM functionality and other military social networks allow analysts with the US Army, Air Force and Marines to hunt down insurgents, avoid civilian causalities and collateral damage and ultimately save American lives in Afghanistan.

May 27 marked the anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson, celebrated author and wildlife conservationist. When her book Silent Spring was first published in 1962, New Orleans state bird, the Brown Pelican was on the verge of extinction, due to pesticides and pollution. Almost 50 years later, that same bird faces a similar fate from another man-made disaster.