Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Okay, not really. But the science is in its infancy! *ducks while audience throws things*

I've heard most of the contents of this article from other sources, so there's nothing exactly new here, but this article from Guardian Unlimited is a very well-written, thorough discussion of the current state of brain-machine interfaces.

Meet the Mind Readers

An excerpt:

If all goes according to plan, Donoghue's trial, designed to explore how well a variety of people can control different devices by the power of thought, will be completed in about 18 months. He's not the only one keen to find out just how useful such devices could be. At Duke University in North Carolina, Miguel Nicolelis is in the final stages of getting permission to fit 16 quadriplegic patients - half in the US, half in Brazil - with brain implants for a period of 30 days. Initially the trial will look at whether the patients' brains still produce useful motor signals. "Then, we want to see if these patients can control a robotic arm that can reach and grab objects, and how well their brains get used to it," says Nicolelis.

Okay, I feel bad for using such a teasing headline just for a dry story about brain implant research, so I did a little more digging. Don't ever say I don't care about my readers...

My Little Cyborg: Baby TooCuteous of Borg

If you ever needed an object lesson about how harmful stereotypes can be, just check this out: Stinky the Robot, Four Kids, and A Brief Whiff of Success

It's the story of how four illegal immigrant high school students built a submersible robot, entered it in a NASA-sponsored competition against robots from prestigious universities, including MIT... and won.

Not only did they win the grand prize, but they also won for best design and best technical writing.

Apparently, Wired has a really detailed article about this too, going into how they created the robot. It's a very colorful story, it sounds like a Hollywood movie. At one point, one of the kids is considering whether or not it is appropriate to pray to the Virgin Mary about tampons, and the story also contains the quote: "Lorenzo, if what I think is about to happen does happen, I do not, under any circumstances, want to hear you say the word 'Hooters' onstage."

Unfortunately, even despite this amazing success, these kids are stuck.

Vazquez and Aranda graduated from Hayden last spring, but they're not in college now, Davis writes, because they're illegal immigrants and thus ineligible for student loans or cheap in-state tuition. Vazquez is hanging drywall and Aranda is filing papers at a Social Security office. Santillan and Arcega are still at Hayden, Davis says, but their prospects for college also look dubious.

Now, the problem of illegal immigration is a complex one, but it seems like a tragedy when kids that are this talented are stuck hanging drywall and filing just because they can't afford college.
And on that note, apparently, a scholarship fund is being set up. For more info, or to make a donation (by check), write to this address:

Phoenix Union Partnership - La Vida Robot Scholarship
Phoenix Union High School District - Attn: Jodie Baker
4502 N. Central, Room 5
Phoenix, AZ 85012

Acupuncture found to lower elevations in blood pressure up to half

On Mythbusters last night, they did an experiment to see what method is best for cooling a six-pack of beer as quickly as possible.

Absolute Fastest: Put the beer in a bucket and empty a fire extinguisher over it. Cooled the beer from room temperature to the "ideal" temperature of 38°F in about 30 seconds.

Fastest Practical Method: Place beer in a cooler filed with ice and salt water. The salt water lowers the freezing temperature of the water, allowing the lower temperature of the ice to cool the water without melting as quickly, and the water added to the ice increases the heat transfer coefficient. The iced salt water cooled a six pack from room temperature (~63°F) to 37°F in less than five minutes!

So there you have it. Please use your science responsibly.

They did a scientific study that PROVES that playing computer games at work IMPROVES both productivity and employee morale!

Check it out: Games at Work May Be Good for You

After a long search for a company which would agree to host their experiment, the research team randomly split workers from five departments into groups.

Some were allowed to play simple Windows games like Solitaire and Minesweeper, while other "control" groups were denied the chance.

The results were measured against how they felt about the work they do and their job.

"The groups that played games showed improvement on both of these measures," says Professor Goldstein.

The results suggest that, instead of games being a waste of time at work, they might help personal productivity and make people feel better about their jobs.

So next time your boss gets on your back for playing Solitaire (or Blogging... *ahem*) at work, just show them that! If they don't fire you on the spot, you're golden.

Now, I think it relevant that the test group were only allowed to play the games for 1 hour a day. I think we see a clear trend here, and it seems only logical to me that playing MORE games would be even better. I, for one, volunteer to test this hypothesis. Now if only I can get a government grant.

My friend Mike has already proposed one to flesh out the results of a previous study that shows that Booze Boosts Brainpower! Maybe they could even be combined!

Thanks to Dave Barry, for sharing the truth that shall set us free!

That science can tell us this...

Malt-Liquor Favored By Homeless, Unemployed Drinkers

Especially surprising is this selection:

Reuters reported March 14 that researchers from Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in California interviewed 329 drinkers and concluded that malt-liquor drinkers also consumed more alcohol than other drinkers, in part because malt liquor has a higher alcohol content than beer and is sold in larger containers.

Who would've thunk it?

I've posted about the AIDS debate before. I discovered it over at Dean's World and was shocked that the HIV causes AIDS theory was still even under discussion.

It made me question a lot of my assumptions, but after all was said and done,I ultimately settled back into the position that HIV is at the very least related to AIDS, if not the sole cause.

However the discussion really did change my position on at least one element, that being the way the world is responding to the "epidemic" of AIDS occurring in Africa.

To put it very simply, the diagnostic criteria and tests being used to identify AIDS patients in Africa are incredibly vague and unreliable. For example, did you know that people in Africa can be diagnosed with AIDS without ever receiving a single HIV test, simply because they are demonstrating the exact same symptoms caused by malaria/dysentary/malnutrition? And there have been accusations that some of the drug testing performed there may have been done unethically. Dean's got a post about it all right here.

It suggests that all the money currently being spent to try to provide all these "AIDS" patients with what are essentially chemotherapy drugs might be far more effectively spent providing these people with clean water supplies.

Read it, and see what you think.

Remember all those famine-inducing droughts that global-warming climate change is supposed to be causing. Someone forgot to tell the Midwest.

Nutty Weather Led to Bodacious Midwest Crop Yields

If farmers talk big about 2004 crops as they get ready to head out into the fields this spring, let them talk. Believe them. Last year's crop season saw record yields in every major crop amid the closest-to-perfect weather conditions of the last century, scientists say. "Never before have corn, soybeans, sorghum, and alfalfa hay all achieved record yields in the same year," said Stanley A. Changnon, chief emeritus of the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) and an adjunct professor of geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.