Speaking of real time regulation, Ann Marie Healy reports on Z+Blog about a pigeons+blogs sensing and reporting system:
These birds are the first iteration of pigeon bloggers, set loose with GPS receivers, air pollution sensors and a basic cellphone. They have been given the task of measuring the levels of air pollutants and their tools allow them to beam back the results to a real time blog.
The hope, in addition to the data itself, is that this will:
inspire people to come up with more creative and effective means of monitoring the degradation of the environment.
Big business and creative opportunities, I think.