SAN JOSE - A convincing twin of Darth Vader stalks the beige cubicles of a Silicon Valley office, complete with ominous black mask, cape and light saber.
But this is no chintzy Halloween costume. It’s a prototype, years in the making, of a toy that incorporates brain wave-reading technology.
Behind the mask is a sensor that touches the user’s forehead and reads the brain’s electrical signals, then sends them to a wireless receiver inside the saber, which lights up when the user is concentrating. The player maintains focus by channeling thoughts on any fixed mental image, or thinking specifically about keeping the light sword on. When the mind wanders, the wand goes dark.
Engineers at NeuroSky Inc. have big plans for brain wave-reading toys and video games. They say the simple Darth Vader game — a relatively crude biofeedback device cloaked in gimmicky garb — portends the coming of more sophisticated devices that could revolutionize the way people play...
--MSNBC
Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Genetic Discrimination Ban Clears House; Senate OK Expected
If legislation passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives becomes law, it will be illegal to deny a job or health insurance on the basis of a person's genetic makeup.
With more links drawn between genetic profiles and disease predispositions every day, supporters of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act say the bill will ease patients' worries of being singled out for faulty genes.
“GINA will do more than stamp out a new form of discrimination,” said Louise Slaughter (D-New York) who introduced the bill. “It will allow us to realize the tremendous potential of genetic research without jeopardizing one of the most fundamental privacies that can be imagined.”
Such discrimination is rare, but supporters of the bill worry that as genetic testing becomes common and scientists chart the complex links between genes and health, profiling might also increase...
WiredFriday, April 27, 2007
Quake brings WWII PT boat up from ocean floor
Wreckage from a World War II torpedo boat was tossed up from the sea in the Solomon Islands after a powerful 8.1 earthquake hit the area in early April, an official said Friday.
Jay Waura of the National Disaster Management Office said the explosive-laden boat was exposed when reefs were pushed up three meters (10 feet) above sea level by the April 2 quake, which caused a devastating tsunami in the western Solomon Islands that killed 52 people.
The Solomons' coastline is still littered with decaying military wrecks from World War II, including the torpedo patrol boat commanded by U.S. President John F. Kennedy...
--CNN
Jay Waura of the National Disaster Management Office said the explosive-laden boat was exposed when reefs were pushed up three meters (10 feet) above sea level by the April 2 quake, which caused a devastating tsunami in the western Solomon Islands that killed 52 people.
The Solomons' coastline is still littered with decaying military wrecks from World War II, including the torpedo patrol boat commanded by U.S. President John F. Kennedy...
--CNN
Mammoth bones loom over Paris sale
For sale: a mammoth skeleton, a 150-kilogram meteorite and a kind of giant pearl formed in the stomachs of certain animals.
Christie's auction house in Paris is hosting an unusual auction of paleontological curiosities, including several prehistoric mammals. The sale takes place Monday.
Bidders interested in buying the star specimen — a 15,000-year-old Siberian mammoth dubbed "The President" — will need at least $199,000. And a lot of floor space: Tusks and all, it's 12.5 feet high and 16 feet long.
Skeletons of a 10,000-year-old, 13.5-foot-long rhinoceros and a 7.5-foot-high cave bear are also going under the hammer...
--USA Today
Christie's auction house in Paris is hosting an unusual auction of paleontological curiosities, including several prehistoric mammals. The sale takes place Monday.
Bidders interested in buying the star specimen — a 15,000-year-old Siberian mammoth dubbed "The President" — will need at least $199,000. And a lot of floor space: Tusks and all, it's 12.5 feet high and 16 feet long.
Skeletons of a 10,000-year-old, 13.5-foot-long rhinoceros and a 7.5-foot-high cave bear are also going under the hammer...
--USA Today
Pregnant cow runs riot across German city
A pregnant cow being chased by police and firefighters caused 25,000 euros (US$33,900) of damage on a three-hour rampage through the German city of Hanover.
Uschi escaped from a farm late Monday and became increasingly violent as she encountered shocked drivers and pedestrians in the city.
Pursued by the farmer, television camera crews and 30 police and firefighters, the Charolais cow lashed out at cars, benches, garden fences and whatever else got in her way during the 5-kilometer chase, authorities said...
--MSNBC
Uschi escaped from a farm late Monday and became increasingly violent as she encountered shocked drivers and pedestrians in the city.
Pursued by the farmer, television camera crews and 30 police and firefighters, the Charolais cow lashed out at cars, benches, garden fences and whatever else got in her way during the 5-kilometer chase, authorities said...
--MSNBC
Two arrested for highway fistfight
State troopers in Minneapolis arrested two women engaged in a fistfight in the middle of rush hour traffic on a freeway.
The women had been riding in the same vehicle before getting out to fight in the center lane of Interstate 694 at during Wednesday's evening rush hour, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
A third person from their vehicle, a man, was not arrested...
--UPI
The women had been riding in the same vehicle before getting out to fight in the center lane of Interstate 694 at during Wednesday's evening rush hour, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
A third person from their vehicle, a man, was not arrested...
--UPI
Drunk deposits horse in bank for night
A German man called on his bank for an unusual service when he was too tired and drunk to go home -- he bedded down there for the night with his horse.
The man, identified as Wolfgang H. by German media, went to sleep next to cash machines in the local branch of the Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Wiesenburg southwest of Berlin after unsaddling his horse Sammy and closing the door.
A spokeswoman for the bank said that aside from an undesirable deposit made by his horse inside the building, the 40-year-old account holder had not breached any house rules...
Hugh Grant arrested over "baked beans attack"
LONDON (Reuters) - Hugh Grant has been arrested and questioned by police after a photographer accused the actor of attacking him with a tub of baked beans.
Photographer Ian Whittaker told the Daily Star tabloid that he and Grant, 46, clashed near the home of the "Four Weddings and a Funeral" star.
Whittaker said Grant abused and kicked him on Tuesday before lobbing the beans. The paper printed photos of Grant with a plastic tub of food raised over his head.
Grant's lawyers Schillings said an incident had taken place and was now under investigation. His agent in the United States said he had no official statement at this stage and London representatives could not be immediately reached for comment...
--Reuters
Photographer Ian Whittaker told the Daily Star tabloid that he and Grant, 46, clashed near the home of the "Four Weddings and a Funeral" star.
Whittaker said Grant abused and kicked him on Tuesday before lobbing the beans. The paper printed photos of Grant with a plastic tub of food raised over his head.
Grant's lawyers Schillings said an incident had taken place and was now under investigation. His agent in the United States said he had no official statement at this stage and London representatives could not be immediately reached for comment...
--Reuters
Flagellation ritual exposes Filipinos to rabies
More than a hundred men in the Philippines may have contracted rabies after taking part in a self-flagellation ritual to mark Good Friday, doctors and local authorities said on Thursday.
A health alert was issued after a man who took part in the traditional ceremony – where participants slash their backs with knifes before flaying themselves with bamboo whips – died from the virus on 11 April.
Mario Morales, the mayor of Mabalacat in Pampanga province north of Manila, told local media that Eduardo Sese may have contaminated up to 100 people who shared knives to cut themselves. He was bitten by an infected dog in February 2007.
The government doctor in Pampanga, Maria Clara Aquino, said vaccines had been given to 103 people who could have been exposed...
--New Scientist
A health alert was issued after a man who took part in the traditional ceremony – where participants slash their backs with knifes before flaying themselves with bamboo whips – died from the virus on 11 April.
Mario Morales, the mayor of Mabalacat in Pampanga province north of Manila, told local media that Eduardo Sese may have contaminated up to 100 people who shared knives to cut themselves. He was bitten by an infected dog in February 2007.
The government doctor in Pampanga, Maria Clara Aquino, said vaccines had been given to 103 people who could have been exposed...
--New Scientist
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
New 'super-Earth' found in space
Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface.
The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.
Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile.
They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also harbour life...
--BBC News
The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.
Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile.
They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also harbour life...
--BBC News
Friday, April 20, 2007
Miss Mexico modifies dress after outcry
Miss Mexico is toning down her Miss Universe pageant dress — not because it’s too slinky or low-cut, but because its bullet-studded belt and images of hangings from a 1920s uprising have outraged Mexicans.
The floor-length dress is accented with crosses, scapulars and a sketch of a man facing a firing squad. Designers who helped select the dress from among 30 entries argued it represented the nation’s culture and history, especially since Mexico City is hosting the pageant in May.
Cut from a traditional natural cotton called manta, the dress depicts scenes from the 1926-1929 Cristero war, an uprising by Roman Catholic rebels against Mexico’s secular government, which was imposing fiercely anti-clerical laws. Tens of thousands of people died...
--MSNBC
The floor-length dress is accented with crosses, scapulars and a sketch of a man facing a firing squad. Designers who helped select the dress from among 30 entries argued it represented the nation’s culture and history, especially since Mexico City is hosting the pageant in May.
Cut from a traditional natural cotton called manta, the dress depicts scenes from the 1926-1929 Cristero war, an uprising by Roman Catholic rebels against Mexico’s secular government, which was imposing fiercely anti-clerical laws. Tens of thousands of people died...
--MSNBC
Colombia truck crashes, spills cocaine
A truck loaded with cocaine flipped after taking a curve too fast, spilling nearly a ton of the drug across a Colombian highway.
Police said the drugs were hidden in the truck’s walls and roof, which ripped open Thursday when the vehicle overturned in Medellin, 155 miles north of the capital, Bogota.
The driver escaped injury but was quickly arrested...
--MSNBC
Police said the drugs were hidden in the truck’s walls and roof, which ripped open Thursday when the vehicle overturned in Medellin, 155 miles north of the capital, Bogota.
The driver escaped injury but was quickly arrested...
--MSNBC
Woman Finds WWII Grenade in Potatoes
A woman in a town near Naples got an unwelcome surprise when she bought a sack of potatoes at a nearby market, put them into water to peel and discovered one of them was a hand grenade apparently left over from World War II.
Olga Mauriello had put the potatoes in a vat of water and had just begun peeling them Tuesday when she found the explosive, covered in dirt, police said Wednesday.
An alarmed Mauriello, 74, called neighbors, who in turn called police...
--ABC News
Olga Mauriello had put the potatoes in a vat of water and had just begun peeling them Tuesday when she found the explosive, covered in dirt, police said Wednesday.
An alarmed Mauriello, 74, called neighbors, who in turn called police...
--ABC News
Sea lion attacks 13-year-old surfing off Australian coast
A sea lion leaped out of the sea and attacked a 13-year-old girl as she surfed behind a speedboat off Australia's west coast, a newspaper reported Sunday.
A marine scientist said the attack by the sea lion, which can grow to more than 880 pounds in weight but usually stay away from humans, was bizarre and that the sea lion may have been trying to play with the girl.
Ella Murphy had her jaw broken and lost three teeth after the sea lion attacked her on Friday as she was being towed on a surfboard behind a speedboat at Lancelin, a town 80 miles north of the Western Australia state capital of Perth, The Sunday Times newspaper reported...
--USA Today
A marine scientist said the attack by the sea lion, which can grow to more than 880 pounds in weight but usually stay away from humans, was bizarre and that the sea lion may have been trying to play with the girl.
Ella Murphy had her jaw broken and lost three teeth after the sea lion attacked her on Friday as she was being towed on a surfboard behind a speedboat at Lancelin, a town 80 miles north of the Western Australia state capital of Perth, The Sunday Times newspaper reported...
--USA Today
Winnie the Pooh causes bomb scare
A man who went to a Missouri post office to pick up a novelty phone he ordered over the Internet was alarmed that the package was ticking; it subsequently created a bomb scare.
It turned out that the phone — shaped like Winnie the Pooh — had a feature the customer did not know about: An incoming call causes Winnie's head to spin, and the feature apparently had been activated during shipping.
The ticking that prompted evacuation of the Wright City post office Thursday morning was Winnie's head repeatedly hitting the side of the package, Missouri Highway Patrol spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Scerine said...
--USA Today
It turned out that the phone — shaped like Winnie the Pooh — had a feature the customer did not know about: An incoming call causes Winnie's head to spin, and the feature apparently had been activated during shipping.
The ticking that prompted evacuation of the Wright City post office Thursday morning was Winnie's head repeatedly hitting the side of the package, Missouri Highway Patrol spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Scerine said...
--USA Today
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Hungarian motorway blocked by escaping rabbits
Hungary's busiest highway, connecting Budapest with the Austrian capital Vienna, was closed early on Monday after a truck carrying rabbits crashed, letting 5,000 of the animals loose on the road, police said...
--Reuters
--Reuters
3 Central American nations ban self-styled Antichrist
Three Central American governments have banned a man claiming to be the Antichrist from entering their countries, outraged by his inflammatory preaching against the Catholic Church and organized religion.
El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have banned Jose de Jesus Miranda, who heads a cult-like movement with sermons televised from Miami to dozens of mostly Latin American nations and wants to join followers at a rally next week in Guatemala.
A former heroin addict who was briefly imprisoned as a youth in his native Puerto Rico, Miranda, 60, talks openly in a video on his Web site about how he loved cocaine and dreamed of working in a Colombian drug lab.
He has the number 666 identifying the Antichrist tattooed on his arm but says he is Jesus Christ reborn on Earth, arguing Saint Paul's teachings show this is what Antichrist means...
--Reuters
El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have banned Jose de Jesus Miranda, who heads a cult-like movement with sermons televised from Miami to dozens of mostly Latin American nations and wants to join followers at a rally next week in Guatemala.
A former heroin addict who was briefly imprisoned as a youth in his native Puerto Rico, Miranda, 60, talks openly in a video on his Web site about how he loved cocaine and dreamed of working in a Colombian drug lab.
He has the number 666 identifying the Antichrist tattooed on his arm but says he is Jesus Christ reborn on Earth, arguing Saint Paul's teachings show this is what Antichrist means...
--Reuters
Horses may be drugged for Stones gig
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Preparations to sedate as many as 300 horses stabled at Belgrade's racecourse to keep them calm during a Rolling Stones concert have enraged Serb animal lovers who are lobbying to have the gig moved to another venue.
The concert is expected to draw more than 100,000 people to the Hippodrome, Belgrade's largest fenced space. The horses will be only a few metres from the stage.
"Horses differ, the same as people. Some are more nervous, more skittish," said hostler Jovanka Prelic. "If they get too nervous or start to panic during the concert, they'll get sedatives"...
--Reuters
The concert is expected to draw more than 100,000 people to the Hippodrome, Belgrade's largest fenced space. The horses will be only a few metres from the stage.
"Horses differ, the same as people. Some are more nervous, more skittish," said hostler Jovanka Prelic. "If they get too nervous or start to panic during the concert, they'll get sedatives"...
--Reuters
Semi driver checks on doughnuts, crashes
MINOT, N.D. - A semi driver whose truck rolled on its side, dumping a load of specialty sunflower seeds, says it happened when he tried to check on a couple of doughnuts.
Merv Bontrager of Milo said he looked away briefly from an off-ramp on which he was driving Tuesday morning and ended up rolling his rig on the southeast edge of Minot.
It seemed to happen in slow motion, he said.
"I just looked down briefly on the floor where I had thrown a couple of doughnuts I was going to eat later, to see where they had landed," Bontrager said...
--Yahoo! News
Merv Bontrager of Milo said he looked away briefly from an off-ramp on which he was driving Tuesday morning and ended up rolling his rig on the southeast edge of Minot.
It seemed to happen in slow motion, he said.
"I just looked down briefly on the floor where I had thrown a couple of doughnuts I was going to eat later, to see where they had landed," Bontrager said...
--Yahoo! News
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