The state of New Jersey recently enacted a law that requires  children attending licensed pre-school and child care centers to get flu vaccinations . I always find it pretty amazing when a government takes it upon themselves to mandate what we inject into our children - especially when the vaccine at best covers 3-4 strains of the influenza virus and at any time there are hundreds of strains out there infecting people (and they must pick the correct ones for the vaccine 18 months in advance).

The other interesting statistic from the New York Time article linked above is that “Last year, the C.D.C. received reports that 86 children had died from flu-related complications”. So we are potentially vaccinating millions of kids in an attempt to prevent 86 deaths - and this requires a mandatory law.

Yet smoking is legal, go figure. I’m glad I (and my daughter) live in Massachusetts.

As an avid diver and underwater photographer I’m always looking for a way to reduce all the gear that ends up hanging off me when I dive. This mask, which records 720P video and also takes still pictures is one of the more creative things I’ve ever seen and is being shown at CES 2009.

The mask is certified to a depth rating of 115 ft which is a bit concerning as an expert recreational diver can definitely go to that depth and slightly below. But I guess for an estimated $215 it is a pretty good package given that the rig I normally carry for video set me back over $3k. The optional lights are a nice addition although they do sort of make you look like a giant insect and I’m not sure how they will affect head movement through the water.

An interesting piece of diving gear.

This is really well done!

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

One of the blogs I stumbled upon recently was Concept Ships which is full of all kinds of sci-fi eye candy (of the hardware variety). The car above was posted recently and drawn by Dwayne Vance.

I definitely want one.

Some completely over the top news from across the pond. The police in the UK have decided that it is perfectly OK for them to hack into personal computers without a warrant.

“The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room. Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.”

Whenever I see a government take these steps (something authorities in the US seem to have been doing with regularity since 2001) the first question that always comes to mind is why is it so difficult to get a warrant? It would seem to me having a judge as a control on this sort of invasion of civil liberties would make a lot of sense.

The time is coming very soon for us to all set up our hard drives as fully encrypted. In fact it may already be here.

Having lived in Vancouver, British Columbia and observed what happens when the city actually sees snow, the following (joke) article forwarded to me by some locals brought a smile to my face. It always amazed me that a city that is two hours from Whistler would have so many atrocious winter drivers. I once drove my wife to work at an office in downtown with about a inch of snow on the ground and it was a ghost town. Her boss was amazed she even tried to get to work.

See - not all Canadians live in igloos (a question I once got asked while on spring break in Florida).

Chilled Vancouver commuters faced their second day of winter hell today, as an additional ¼ centimetre of the peculiar white stuff  fell, bringing the lower mainland to its knees and causing millions of Dollars worth of damage to the marijuana crops. Scientists suspect that the substance is some form of frozen water particles and experts from Saskatchewan are being flown in.

With temperatures dipping to the almost but not quite near zero mark, Vancouverites were warned to double Insulate their lattes before venturing out. Vancouver police recommended that people stay inside Except for emergencies, such as running out of espresso or biscotti to see them through Vancouver’s most terrible storm to date.

The local Canadian Tire reported that they had completely sold out of  fur-lined sandals. Drivers were cautioned to put their convertible tops up, and several have been shocked to learn that their SUV’s actually have four  wheel drive, although most have no idea how to use it.  Weary commuters faced soggy sushi, and the threat of frozen breast implants.

Although Dr. John Blatherwick, of the Coastal Health Authority reassured everyone that most breast implants were perfectly safe to 25 Below, down-filled bras are flying off the shelves at Mountain Equipment Co-op.  “The government has to do something,” snarled an angry Trevor Warburton. “I didn’t pay $540,000 for my one bedroom condo so I could sit around and be treated like someone from Toronto.”

Wired.com has posted their top 10 videos of 2008. Whether or not you agree that these are the top 10, they are pretty good.

Apparently pictures of mothers breastfeeding their children are being quietly removed from Facebook because they don’t “comply” with Facebook’s obscenity policy. Ignoring how ridiculous this is on its face, if you read a little deeper into the New York Times post you’ll learn that most of the pictures are actually flagged by other users for potential removal - so the moral minority has determined that breastfeeding is “icky” and shouldn’t be shown online. Have they done a Google search lately? Or for that matter, realized that Facebook actually has a group called “I’ve had sex with somebody on Facebook” that has nearly 150,000 members.

I believe some of the more repressive regimes out there have a whole crop of guys who do this sort of thing - wander around and make sure no one shows too much skin - by beating them with sticks. Maybe this is the Web 2.0 version.

This is over the top. Amazing!

Remember back in the day when the only browser penetration statistics you needed to worry about was the battle between IE and Netscape. Things are a bit more complex these days with Firefox, Chrome, Safari and of course the Safari mobile browser that runs on the iPhone.

It looks like all those new iPhone users were out buying Christmas presents as the mobile Safari use jumped 36% during Christmas week. As an avid iPhone user myself, I’m always pleased when I stumble upon a site that presents a mobile interface. More sites should cater to this growing market.