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Bits and pieces
Jan. 19th, 2007 07:56 amSource: BBC News  An African Grey parrot is challenging long-held beliefs about avian intelligence. This prodigy has a vocabulary of over 950 words and has demonstrated both a sense of humour and an ability to improvise when confronted with new concepts. |
Source: New Scientist Scientists have proposed a new biometrics identification system based on EEG signals. Preliminary tests have shown it to be 88% accurate so would most likely be combined with other biometric methods. |
Source: BBC News  Researchers are developing a camera that does much more with less... one pixel to be exact. Using what is effectively a random-access approach, millions of micromirrors take turns in pseudo-random order illuminating a single pixel element to form a complete image. The process is apparently more efficient, but no mention was made of problems like blur due to camera or subject motion. The system is what we refer to in machine vison as a "random access scanner". Laser range scanners use a similar principal. |
Source: PhysOrg  Recent research shows that if a man wants to attract another woman's attention then he should arrange to have other women smile at him more often. Apparently a women are more likely to rate a man as more likeable if other women are seen smiling at him. On the other hand other men are less likely to rate him as likeable if women are smiling at him. Take from this what you will. |
Source: PhysOrg.com Lake Ontario is becoming infested with a type of shrimp that is not picky about what it eats so poses a threat to indigenous species. Attack of the ravenous red shrimp sounds too much like a bad horror flick. |
Two weeks ago, Britain announced that it would send an unmanned mission to the moon, adding to the growing list of countries seeking to visit our closest neighbour.
Fox is threatening to delay or or simply not release movies to Canada unless it cleans up its act with regard to pirating new releases. Apparently, Canadian releases were the source of almost 50% of pirated copies intercepted in the US. Canada is now on a "watch list" with countries like China and Russia for its lack of Intellectual Property enforcement. It is not a criminal offence in Canada to pirate a movie; rather, it will result in a $5,000 fine which is far less than sales of the pirated movie can garner.
Researchers at the University of Rochester claim to have succeeded in encoding an entire image (shown here) on a single photon and later retrieving it. This technique could be used for buffering data in an optical processing system without having to convert the information into electricity for storage.
The Thrustpac consists of a small piston engine (no, you don't cook it) and a propellor that you wear on your back. It is touted as being economical and environmentally friendly, but bloody dangerous doesn't seem to appear on any promotional literature. Go to 
More on the neural prosthetics from an earlier post: apparently one of the key features is that the neural cells grown onto 96-element microarray are mechanically stretched at a rate of 1-cm per day into a type of "neural extension cord". This means that the electronic components do not have to be placed within nervous tissue (such as the brain), but can be up to several centimetres outside in more stable (and less easily damaged) material. Instead, only the cord is implanted into the nervous tissue.
