On June 30, 2008 the UK Boarder Agency will complete the implementation worldwide of its new Tier 1 points based system, to replace eight earlier visa categories, among which is the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme.

Interested persons can find more information at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier1/general/ (page opens in new window).

I'm putting this here because it's virtually impossible to reach by e-mail, all the people I know who will be interested in this news.

I need to stress that the appearance of this information here does not imply that it, and indeed any information on this website, is in any way endorsed by the UK Home Office or the UK Border Agency.

The One Laptop Per Child (laptop.org) is a US$100 laptop that promises to revolutionise education and development among some of the world's poorest children. According to the OLPC Foundation, "starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home." In other words, $400 gets your child a laptop, and another one is sent to a needy child in the developing world. And, your child gets a pen-pal in that child, since they can stay in touch via e-mail. You can donate here.

As they say, touch a child's life and you never know what other lives might be touched in turn. Read more about the OLPC and the "Get 1 Give 1" program in this New York Times article.

There has been a lot of negative comments about what's wrong with the laptop — no hard drive, no CD/DVD drive, etc. But until you see one in operation, you have no idea what a powerful idea this rabbit-eared laptop represents, and about its potential to change the world. This YouTube video review by David Pogue of the New York Times also shows what a powerful kid-magnet the OLPC is.

According to Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC founder and former chairman of MIT's Media Lab, complaining about the perceived shortcomings of the laptop is "as if people spent all of their attention focusing on Columbus’s boat and not on where he was going". Walter Bender, a computer researcher who served as director of the Media Laboratory after Mr. Negroponte and now heads software development for the laptop project, likens the XO to a Trojan Horse — “the soldiers inside this Trojan horse are children with laptops.”

This video shows how easy it is to copy another person's fingerprint and successfully authenticate using it on a fingerprint reader, the sort that is becoming increasingly common either built into laptops, or as USB attachments. Although the sound track is in German, it's quite easy to follow what's going on. Basically, all you need is some reasonably good computer skills, plus

• The lid from a plastic bottle
• Superglue
• A digital camera
• Wood glue
• Cosmetic glue
• An image processing program
• An inkjet printer

So, if you think fingerprint recognition is safe, you probably want to think again.

"In 1999, Eglash discovered that fractal geometry – the geometry of similar shapes repeated on ever-shrinking scales – is apparent in the designs of many cultures on the continent of Africa, revealing that traditional African mathematics may be much more complicated than previously thought. He documented fractal patterns in cornrow hairstyles, weavings, and the architecture of villages, as well as many forms of African art."

Image Credit: Rensselaer/Eglash

African women have been braiding their hair for centuries, and indeed, braiding seems to be a hairstyle fashion that never goes out of vogue in Africa. So, i was quite intrigued to discover that there is actually some "serious maths" behind those cute-looking braids. This happened when I stumbled across Ron Eglash's work on "culturally situated design tools" (CSDTs), a set of computer programs which help "educate students about the mathematics principles used to design cornrow hairstyles, Mangbetu art, Navajo rugs, Yupik parka patterns, Pre-Columbian pyramids, and Latin music, among others". Read about the African origins of cornrow braiding here, and here for how Eglash's software tools are sparking student interest and increasing their achievement in mathematics.

Apparently, as in the case of nanobiotechnology which I blogged about some time ago, fractal geometry has been long known to the peoples of Africa, and it's true what the good book says about there being nothing new under the sun.

I've just watched a segment on TV3 about the dangers of driving on New Zealand roads, especially those posed by [mostly teen-age] drink-drivers, unlicensed drivers, etc., and I remembered that a friend had sent me pictures from the scene of a fatal accident.

Please be warned that the attached pictures are of an extremely graphic nature, so please do not try to view them if you are of a queasy disposition. However, I urge you to share the images with anyone you know who has ever behaved irresponsibly behind the wheels.

"We need a revolution in our understanding of science and of the world. Living in an age dominated by science, we have come more and more to believe in an objective, empirical reality and in the goal of reaching a complete understanding of that reality. Part of the thrill that came with the announcement that the human genome had been mapped or with the idea that we are close to understanding the big bang rests in our desire for completeness.

But we’re fooling ourselves."

The above quotation is from an article by Robert Lanza appearing in The American Scholar, in which he seems to be arguing that all of what humanity accepts as facts, including all our theories of quantum mechanics, evolution, spacetime, etc., are nothing but our creation. In other words, all those things are real only to the extent that we make them real. So, time only passes, and we move through space because we create the concept of time and space.