Brown researchers have enabled a monkey to move a computer cursor just by thinking about it using a computer implant.

See the article:
The power of a thought,
by Felice J. Freyer for Projo.com.

The researchers implanted a tiny silicone chip, containing 100 hair-thin electrodes, in the brains of three rhesus monkeys that had learned to play a simple video game with a specially designed joystick.

They connected one monkey’s implant via 100 wires to a computer system, and then disconnected the joystick. Manipulating the now-useless joystick, the monkey was instantly able to move the cursor toward a target simply by thinking. Sometimes it let go of the joystick while continuing to play. The cursor responded just as quickly, but not quite as smoothly, as when the animals had used their hands to control it.

“We substituted thought control for hand control,” said John Donoghue, chairman of Brown’s department of neuroscience and the project’s senior researcher.

Although other researchers have used brain implants to produce motion, the Brown work is remarkable for the speed and accuracy of the monkey’s cursor control, said Dr. William Heetderks, director of the neuroprosthesis program at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “The quality of the movement is in a sense competitive with using your hand to produce a movement,” he said.

If such a system is eventually found to be safe and reliable in people, it could unlock a vast potential for paralyzed people, who would be able to do anything that can be accomplished by moving a computer cursor.

Andersen’s not getting away with a fine and a slap on the wrist this time.

See:

Andersen Misread Depths of the Government’s Anger,
by Kurt Eichenwald for the New York Times.

Last week, Andersen became the first major accounting firm ever charged with a felony. The firm, and its lawyers, misread the depths of the government’s anger with Andersen in the wake of its flawed audits of other major clients. Earnings restatements by those clients have caused their stock prices to tumble, costing investors tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.

In such cases, Andersen paid a fine and moved on. This time, law enforcement officials wanted to crack down hard.

The prosecutors’ zeal for going after Enron appears to be almost matched by their fury at Andersen. In their view, Andersen has minimized the significance of its transgressions

Here’s a rather critical view of the music side of SXSW, courtesy of the Austin American Statesman:

Sure, music bizzers talk (Just not to each other),
by Joe Gross.

I just got BloggerPro going. I’ll let you know how it goes…

The New York Times did a piece on SXSW:

Festival Is Upbeat Despite Music-Business Doldrums,
by Jon Pareles.

Remember those full body X-Ray scanning machines in the movie Total Recall? Well, they’re not just science fiction any more.

Let’s set aside the questionable constitutionality of a virtual strip search without probable cause for a moment…which is a tough order, I know, but I have another concern.

The current round of “voluntary testing” described in the article below doesn’t mention anything about a proper study of the health risks associated with such a frequent exposure to X-Rays (despite their claims of using “low power X-rays”).

Last I checked, any repeated exposure to any kind of X-Rays isn’t a good idea. The only reason the X-Rays that our chiropractors and dentists use on us aren’t harmful is because we are only exposed to them infrequently; No more than once a year of either kind is a good idea. This is why the person operating the equipment needs to stay behind the protective window when they flick the switch (the dangers of repeated exposure).

I hope our government isn’t seriously considering frying all of us under these systems and waiting to find out later what the health risks are.

I hope the people volunteering to be searched by such systems are warned adequately in advance about the possible health risks involved.

If there aren’t any risks involved, and I’m worrying for nothing, I’d like to see a report from someone objective and reputable confirming this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

See the AP story by Mike Branom:
New Security Devices at Fla. Airport.

One system, the Rapiscan Secure 1000, uses low-energy X-rays to search a person through clothing. When Rapiscan project manager Bryan Allman scanned himself, detected was a plastic knife hidden in his shirt pocket.

However, the outline of his body

A ‘DNA computer’ has been used for the first time to find the only correct answer from over a million possible solutions to the classic NP-complete computational problem.

Check out the PhysicsWeb article by Katie Pennicott: