Definition of “Sense”
Senses are the physiological capacities within organisms that provide inputs for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology (or cognitive science), and philosophy of perception. The nervous system has a specific sensory system or organ, dedicated to each sense. The traditional five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, a classification attributed to Aristotle. Read more from Wikipedia here.

Descartes’ View of Sense Perception
Some have suggested that René Descartes argues that sense perception relies on the mind rather than on the body. Descartes asserts that we can know our mind more readily than we can know our body. In support of this idea he gives the example of a piece of wax which is observed in its solid form and its liquid form. After pointing out the difficulties of relying on the senses of the physical body to understand the nature of the wax he makes this claim: “[P]erception … is neither a seeing, nor a touching, nor an imagining. … [R]ather it is an inspection on the part of the mind alone.” 1 This quote is perhaps the most direct statement of the author’s thesis on this subject. Read more here.

Seventh Sense Biosystems – Shout Out
Seventh Sense Biosystems is developing novel products to optimize the interface of diagnostic medicine and the healthcare consumer by dramatically simplifying blood sampling and testing. By eliminating the barriers to the acquisition of critical diagnostic information, Seventh Sense is contributing to the future of informed, effective healthcare delivery and patient participation in their own well-being. Okay, we admit this really has nothing to do with our weekly theme, but since we like the name of this company, we wanted to give them a shout out. Learn more about Seventh Sense Biosystems here.

Checking Your Sixth Sense – From The ‘School of Champions’
Because of the large number of people who have had such extra-sensory experiences as foreseeing the future, seeing what seemed to be spirits, and possibly reading the minds of others, there is a good probability that all humans have what is called a 6th sense. Some people seem to have it more than others. It is possible to verify that you have this sense and perhaps even improve your sensitivity to it. Since the 6th sense is a very weak sense, many people go through life without realizing their extra capabilities. Want to learn how to strengthen your sixth sense? Check out more from the School of Champions web site here.

Senses Working Over Time
Often times, we like to focus on songs and videos that are “left of the dial.” Mainstream music references are just too easy. So, we sincerely hope that our dedicated readers enjoy viewing more off-beat music videos (that of course, tie into our weekly theme). So, today we decided to feature the classic alternative band XTC and their most excellent song, “Senses Working Over Time.”

Happy Friday!

DigitalGlobe Announces the Development of WorldView-3
DigitalGlobe, a leading global content provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, today announced that it had contracted Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation to build its next imaging satellite, WorldView-3. The company also contracted with ITT Corporation to build the imaging system for WorldView-3. The imaging system will be capable of capturing 8-band multispectral high-resolution imagery. The WorldView-3 satellite is scheduled to be ready for launch in 2014 and will further expand DigitalGlobe’s industry-leading collection capacity, ensuring that DigitalGlobe can meet future assignments while continuing to deliver value-added products that satisfy current customers’ needs for information and insight derived from advanced imagery applications. Read the full press release here.

Google and Arcade Fire Collaborate on the Geekiest Music Video Ever
Google displayed the power of HTML5 this Monday, thanks to a unique music video collaboration with indie-rock band Arcade Fire. The unusual partnership, which goes under the project name of The Wilderness Downtown, was directed by Chris Milk and offers site visitors an undoubtedly new browsing experience. The project is made of an impressive mashup of Arcade Fire’s video for “We Used to Wait,” along with inventive use of Google’s mapping service. When you visit the site you will be instructed to enter the address of the home you grew up in, and after a few minutes–once the background technology loads and does its magic–the experience will begin. Read the full PC World article here.

Sigourney Weaver Narrates New Google Earth Animation on Brazil’s Controversial Belo Monte Dam for Amazon Watch and International Rivers
Amazon Watch and International Rivers have teamed up to create a state-of-the-art 10-minute Google Earth 3-D tour and video narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver, with technical assistance from Google Earth Outreach, in support of Brazil’s Xingu River Forever Alive Movement. Download the tour or view the video on amazonwatch.org. The tour allows viewers to learn about the harmful impacts of, and alternatives to the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon’s Xingu River. If built, the Belo Monte Dam would be the third-largest hydroelectric dam in the world. The dam would divert the flow of the Xingu River, an important tributary of the Amazon River, in order to produce electricity for industrial mining operations in the region. The dam’s reservoirs would flood 668 square kilometers and displace more than 20,000 people. Late last week, the Brazilian government signed the concession to build the $17 billion-dollar project, ignoring local, national, and international opposition, proven financial and technical risks, and the ready availability of clean energy alternatives. Read the full Google Earth press release here.

Google to Use ‘Spy Drones’ for Street Mapping
Internet search engine giant Google has plans to use “spy drones” similar to the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in military operations for surveillance and bombing to prepare more accurate maps of streets across the globe. Sven Juerss, the chief executive of Microdrones GmbH, a German firm which builds UAVs, has said that his company has already supplied Google with one aircraft and expects to provide “dozens” more in the future, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday. While this story is a bit old, it is certainly worth checking out here.

Boeing’s Secret Robot Space Plane Vanishes… For Almost Three Weeks
Boeing’s unmanned space vehicle, the X-37B (also known by its prototype designation, OTV-1), launched in April. Its top-secret mission and undisclosed capabilities have engendered plentiful speculation from amateur astronomers, space-policy enthusiasts and arms-control activists alike. Recently, however, the spacecraft pulled off a new trick: a vanishing act. The robotic space plane, which looks like a scaled-down version of the space shuttle and has the approximate payload capacity of a standard-bed pickup truck, disappeared July 29 until it was spotted again Aug. 14. While it would be cool if the X-37B’s mysterious disappearance was due to a Star Trek-style cloaking device, amateur astronomers say it’s likely due to a minuscule change in the spacecraft’s orbit. Read the full Executive Biz post here.

Happy Wednesday!

Hurricane Katrina, Five Years Later
Yesterday marked the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in New Orleans, Louisiana, causing over $80 billion in damage and killing nearly 2,000 people. Google Earth Blog offered a great deal of coverage to the event, as Google was able to contribute a variety of imagery updates and other resources to help. I had just started running Google Earth Hacks at that time, and users submitted quite a few KML files related to the hurricane. Despite only being on the market as “Google Earth” for a few months (it was previously available as “Keyhole”, though it was far less popular) many people, such as this couple, were able to use Google’s oft-updated imagery of the area to see the condition of their home. Read the full Google Earth Blog post here.

Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located
Internet companies have appropriated the real estate business’s mantra — it’s all about location, location, location. But while a home on the beach will always be an easy sell, it may be more difficult to persuade people to start using location-based Web services. Big companies and start-ups alike — including Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, Shopkick and most recently Facebook — offer services that let people report their physical location online, so they can connect with friends or receive coupons. Venture capitalists have poured $115 million into location start-ups since last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association, and companies like Starbucks and Gap have offered special deals to users of such services who visited their stores. But for all the attention and money these apps and Web sites are getting, adoption has so far been largely confined to pockets of young, technically adept urbanites. Just 4 percent of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1 percent use them weekly, according to Forrester Research. Eighty percent of those who have tried them are men, and 70 percent are between 19 and 35. Read the full NY Times story here.

Facebook’s Location-Based Programs Mean More Setting Adjustments for Users
Facebook users should pay particular attention to Facebook Places, the social media site’s new location-based program. Places allows people to “tag,” or add, friends when checking into a location without permission. So if you’re tagged, your whereabouts show up on your Facebook page and your friend’s. Facebook introduced a new feature this month that allows people to use GPS technology to announce their whereabouts. It’s great for smart phone users who want to know where their friends are at any given moment. Some of them already use Foursquare and GoWalla to “check in” to restaurants, bars and other hotspots. But users who are concerned about privacy must proactively change their settings to opt out. Read the full Sun Sentinel article here.

Donley Pushes Major Space Changes
With the stroke of a pen Air Force Secretary Mike Donley engaged one of the most complex bureaucratic challenges faced by the service: how to buy, build and manage satellites and the rockets that move them into space. Donley, seeking to clarify what experts say was a confusing and sometimes ineffective system, ordered several important changes to how the Air Force’s space community is organized and to who makes what decisions. In perhaps the biggest change declared in his memo, Donley vested the service’s undersecretary, Erin Conaton, with the responsibility for guiding all space policy activities overseen by the Air Force. The assistant secretary for acquisition will now lead all space acquisition, combining traditional fighter, bomber and other service acquisition with space. Check out the full DoD Buzz story here.

Spy Satellite Hit by Power Problem
One of four Japanese spy satellites orbiting Earth has malfunctioned and been inoperative since Monday, the government said Saturday. According to the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center, the No. 2 radar satellite, launched in February 2007, appears to be having problems with its power supply and is being examined. The other three spy satellites, all optical satellites, are working to minimize the impact of the malfunctioning satellite, a Defense Ministry source said. Read the full Japanese Times story here.

Situational Awareness – The Definition
Situation awareness, or SA, is the perception of environmental elements within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. It is also a field of study concerned with perception of the environment critical to decision-makers in complex, dynamic areas from aviation, air traffic control, power plant operations, military command and control, and emergency services such as fire fighting and policing; to more ordinary but nevertheless complex tasks such as driving an automobile or motorcycle. Situation awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening around you to understand how information, events, and your own actions will impact your goals and objectives, both now and in the near future. Read the full Wikipedia entry here.

Do You Have Good Situational Awareness?
As a crime scene investigator, one of the strangest things to get used to is people’s lack of situational awareness. One of the best examples I can think of is the bank robbery. There can be five or six police cars parked outside a bank, lights flashing, yellow barrier tape up, and inevitably someone will cross under the tape and start tugging on the locked front door. They may even peer in and ask the uniformed police officer to open the door! We can all laugh at situations like these but it is the lack of situational awareness that oftentimes leads to becoming a victim. Read the full Op-Ed from the Examiner here.

ESRI Situational Awarness
Esri Situational Awareness is a ready-to-operate hardware, software, and data solution that provides a geospatial framework for immediate and long-term situational awareness needs. It includes a powerful data fusion and analysis engine; a set of fully customizable clients for data visualization and analysis; and locally hosted, prerendered data. Because Esri Situational Awareness is based on core Esri server technology, it easily integrates with existing GIS and IT infrastructures to provide a common operational picture (COP) across multiple organizations. Hey, how could we not give Esri a shout out for having a “situational awareness” product? Learn more here.

What is Situational Irony?
Irony comes from an ancient Greek word, ‘eirōneía’, which means hypocrisy or feigned ignorance. Situational and verbal irony is often intentionally used as emphasis in an assertion of a truth. Situational irony is that which results from recognizing the oddness or unfairness of a given situation, irrespective of whether the outcome is positive or negative. Sometimes, the outcome may be very amusing in such unusual circumstances. There are three types of irony – verbal irony, dramatic irony and situational irony. In ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, Dorothy goes to a wizard to fulfill her wish to go home before discovering that she had the ability to go back home all this while. The Scarecrow longs for intelligence only to discover that he is a genius, just as the Tin man longs to be capable of love only to discover that he has a heart. Similarly, the Lion who at first seems to be a coward, turns out to be very courageous. Has Mike “The Situation” ever experiences situational irony? Well, if he did, we doubt he would have the intellectual capacity to know it.

Can You Pass The Situational Awareness Test?
We decided to skip our usual somewhat-related music video and pass along this situational awareness video test. Do you think you have what it takes to pass it? Check it out and let us know.

Happy Friday!

Christophe Lovis of the University of Geneva, lead author of a paper reporting the discovery, told CNET: “We have probably found the system with the most planets known today, coming close to the solar system. This means that we are now able to detect very complex systems of low-mass planets, which will help us a lot [in] understanding their diversity. This a step towards answering long-standing questions, such as, how common are habitable planets in the universe?”

So perhaps this could be a step towards answering that age-old question…are we the only ones in the universe? If you watch UFO Hunters on the History Channel, clearly you would know the answer to that question.

Apple, Taking Target Marketing Seriously
Apple’s new advertising centric webpage states that “iAd rich media ads bring motion and emotion to mobile advertising through branded experiences that entertain and inform. With the iAd logo on each ad, your target Apple audience will know a great experience awaits them behind the banner.” Yeeeesss, Apple is taking Target Marketing seriously – very seriously. In fact we learned just yesterday that Apple has recently acquired a new powerful geo-location patent that packs quite the punch. It’s focused on delivering informative content proactively rather than reactively in response to a person’s manual query to a service or human. Beyond delivering advanced marketing retail services, the patent provides us with a series of other feasible life-based scenarios. For instance, the new service could give home users the ability to announce a Garage Sale that they’re having to anyone in a given vicinity or send emergency live Amber Alerts to your iPhone along with photos of the missing child in question. Advanced geolocation services could go far beyond just commerce. Read the full Patently Apple post here.

Technology Leads More Park Visitors Into Trouble
Cathy Hayes was cracking jokes as she recorded a close encounter with a buffalo on her camera in a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park. “Watch Donald get gored,” she said as her companion hustled toward a grazing one-ton beast for a closer shot with his own camera. Seconds later, as if on cue, the buffalo lowered its head, pawed the ground and charged, injuring, as it turns out, Ms. Hayes. “We were about 30, 35 feet, and I zoomed in on him, but that wasn’t far enough, because they are fast,” she recounted later in a YouTube video displaying her bruised and cut legs. The national parks’ history is full of examples of misguided visitors feeding bears, putting children on buffalos for photos and dipping into geysers despite signs warning of scalding temperatures. Read the full NY Times article here.

In New Approach to Titanic, an Exhibitor Aids Scientists
In the 23 years since divers first reached the wreckage of the Titanic, commercial efforts to salvage artifacts from the doomed ocean liner have aroused as much scientific dispute as public curiosity. Many archaeologists and others — including Robert D. Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who led an American-French team that discovered the remains 25 years ago — wanted the site left untouched as a memorial. Some of them compared salvage efforts to grave robbing. Now, R.M.S. Titanic, the American company that has removed about 4,650 artifacts from the Titanic, will try to mend fences with the scientific community by sponsoring two voyages, the first of which sets sail on Sunday from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Read the full NY Times story here.

Even in a Recession, Aerial Mapping Continues to Grow in Many Ways
A number of interesting developments come to my mind when I think about the state of the aerial mapping industry as we transition from the first decade of the third millennium to the second. The cell phones now carried by 87 percent of Americans are GPS-enabled, driven by a government requirement that carriers be able to report the locations associated with emergency calls. The Public Safety Answering Points that receive those calls use some combination of topographic, planimetric, and image data; the life-or-death accuracy requirements make map updating an ongoing demand. Read the full Professional Surveyor article by Tina Cary here.

Google Earth vs Microsoft Bing Map
I reported on Aug. 20 that the folks over at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency determined only Google had the smarts to handle visualization of the planet. NGA said in a FedBizOps announcement last week that it planned to award Google a sole-source contract for Web-based access to geospatial visualization services because the company was the only outfit on Earth that could meet the viewing requirements. Not so fast, said Microsoft, which told me that the MS Bing Map Server could do the job, too. Now it appears NGA has re-thought, at least, the wording of the Google sole-source contract. Read the full NextGov post here.

Wanted: Those With Top Secret Clearances
Outside a hotel ballroom near Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport airport, about three dozen men and a handful of women lined up one recent morning to have a colored dot — green, blue or red — affixed to their suits and dresses. The colors were key to what’s known as the “meal ticket” for landing a job in the intelligence community: a top-secret clearance. We hung out (yes, we were cleared to attend) at two TechExpo Top Secret job fairs – one near Fort Meade and the other in Reston. The job fairs are run by a New York-based firm that specializes in helping those with clearances connect with companies doing intelligence work under U.S. government contracts. At a check-in booth, organizers asked, “What’s your clearance level?” and passed each candidate an appropriately colored sticker. Read the full Washington Post article here.

The Precarious Future of Ocean-Color Satellite Imagery
The United States owns three orbiting satellites capable of measuring plant life in the world’s oceans, and they’re all on their last legs. That has ocean scientists pushing NASA to have its next satellite take an occasional look at the moon, a critical step for transmitting accurate images of the sea. The three satellites, SeaWiFS, Aqua and Terra, have been flying far longer than they were designed to. SeaWiFs, for example, was built to last three to five years but has lasted 13. Critically, all of these satellites look at the moon on a monthly basis to calibrate the ocean color sensors, which degrade over time. Read the full Reuters story here.

Happy Wednesday!

Following is an exclusive podcast Matt O’Connell, GeoEye’s CEO and President and USGIF board member, who discusses this contract and other GeoEye updates.