If I was a kid, I'd totally want this: Programmable spy tank turns your kid into an app developer

Most kids want to spy on their siblings every now and then, and for today's kids, technology has made snooping easier than ever.

The latest weapon in their arsenal is the Spy Video TRAKR, which takes remote controlled toy technology to a whole new level. Equipped with a color video camera and microphone, the TRAKR sends live video back to the remote, which has its own built in color monitor and speaker. The camera even has infrared sensing technology, so you can still see where you are going when the room is completely dark. If you want to set up a booby trap, you can use the TRAKR's motion sensor to play a message if your sister sneaks into your room, and it will even record the transgression on a flash card so you have video evidence.

Also, while looking up the amount of my real estate taxes, I discovered that we are 1/2 of the way to paying off the house. 7.5 years to go.

Happy Birthday Laura!!

Ooh. This combines two of my favorite things!

Fighting Crime With Math

Sometimes predicting human behavior doesn’t depend on understanding our psychology.

Researchers at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego today presented a mathematical model that predicts the likelihood that a police force can conquer either a new drug market or end a rash of burglaries.

Treating criminal behavior as a deterministic system they created equations, based on Los Angeles Police Department data, that describe the movement of neighborhood crime and how cops might better control the crime rate.

The model produced two types of so-called criminal “hot spots,” which are mathematically referred to as supercritical (which is an unstable system) and subcritical (which is a stable system.)

A subcritical hot spot, like a large neighborhood drug market, can be effectively suppressed according to the model. Because this sort of hot spot requires complex organization and is not easily re-established even after police pressure is relaxed.

But a strong police presence in a supercritical hot spot doesn’t provide a lasting solution. Here, the crime hot spot simply pops up in a nearby area. Think of thieves moving through densely packed homes and quickly able to establish new targets outside the heavily policed area.

But the model’s predictions about hot spot displacement have not been observed in real life. So while the scientists are talking with the LAPD there are no plans, yet, to alter police strategy.

I was just about to get up and do laundry when Clio snuggled in beside me. It seems a shame to leave now.

Thor on Jesus: [link]

Okay, an alternate Burbank question. At what point would the traffic have died down enough to make it a tolerable drive?

Thor on Jesus

So wrong. It's so wrong, I've made it part of my screensaver slideshow.

Thor on Jesus would have more of a point if you needed more than two hands to count his worshippers.

At what point would the traffic have died down enough to make it a tolerable drive?

By 7, maybe? Someone more Valley than me would have a better idea.

Want: [link]