For Those Scared of Retinal Scanners...

...or who don't want to get germs on their fingers with a finger scan, Professor Shigeomi Koshimizu of Japan's Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology has developed a different biometric scan entirely: a butt-scanner.

Really.

The device produces a map of the sitters' unique derriere shape by mapping 360 individual points on the rump through measuring the pressure at each.

The initial idea is to put it in automobiles. The wrong hiney in the seat means the car won't start.

Any place where people sit could be set up with this technology, though; the boss can even have an alarm sound if an underling tries out "the big chair".

An unauthorized posterior in your computer chair wouldn't be able to log on to your computer.

This could give new meaning to the words, "You're in my seat!"


Today is:

Afrma Fancy Rat and Mouse Annual Show -- Riverside, CA, US

Army Day -- Armenia

Blue Spring Manatee Festival -- Orange City, FL, US (through tomorrow; raising awareness of the endangered West Indian manatee)

Carnaval de Quebec -- Quebec City, Canada (through Feb. 13; a vigorous winter celebration)

Data Privacy Day -- International

Democracy Day -- Rwanda

Festival of the Lenaia to Dionysus -- Ancient Greek Calendar, end January through February 5

Ka Moloka'I Makahiki -- Molokai, Hawaii

Kumquat Festival -- Dade City, FL, US

National Blueberry Pancake Day

National Kazoo Day

National Preschool Fitness Day -- get them loving moving early

National Seed Swap Day

National Spieling Day -- internet generated, and whatever your expertise, spiel about it today

Rinkydinks Annual Snowball Fight -- Fairy Calendar

Runic Half-month Elhaz (elk) commences

St. Charlemagne's Day

St. Thomas Aquinas's Day (Patron of students, pencil makers, theologians)

Vasant Panchami -- Hindu (celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge)

Yamayaki -- Nara, Japan (Grass Burning on Mt. Wakakusayama, an annual New Year tradition)


Birthdays Today:

Elijah Wood, 1981
Nick Carter, 1980
Joey Fatone, Jr. 1977
Sarah McLachlan, 1968
Nicolas Sarkozy, 1955
Rick Warren, 1954
Alan Alda, 1936
Susan Sontag, 1933
Jackson Pollack, 1912
Robert Stroud, 1890 (The Birdman of Alcatraz)
Arthur Rubenstein, 1887
Colette, 1873
Jose' Marti, 1853
Peter the Great of Russia, 1775
St. Thomas Aquinas, 1225


Today in History:

The Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted by Pope Gregory VIII, 1077
The first Crusaders begins siege of Hosn-el-Akrad Syria, 1099
Pope Alexander VI gives his son Cesare Borgia as hostage to Charles VIII of France, 1495
Edward VI, age nine, succeeds his father Henry VIII as king of England, 1547
By the Edict of Orleans, the persecution of French Huguenots is suspended, 1561
Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland, 1573
Sir Thomas Warner found the first British colony in the Caribbean, on St. Kitts, 1624
The Russian Academy of Sciences was founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented in the Senate decree (it was called St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917), 1724
Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity, 1754
London's Pall Mall is the first street lit by gaslight, 1807
Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom, 1813
The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway, 1855
In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick, 1887
Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent became the first person to be convicted of speeding in an automobile. He is fined 1 shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h), 1896
The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie, 1902
An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard, 1915
The first Jewish US Supreme Court justice, Louis Brandeis, appointed by Wilson, 1916
A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honor the unknown dead of World War I, 1921
The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence, 1933
The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today, 1958
The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament, 1965
Tropical Storm Domoina makes landfall in southern Mozambique, eventually causing 214 deaths and some of the most severe flooding so far recorded in the region, 1984
Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief, 1985
Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board, 1986
Hundreds of thousands of protesters filled up the Egyptian's streets in demonstrations referred to as "Friday of Anger" against the Mubarak regime, 2011