Five speed rockets and

Source: PhysOrg Thanks to ancalagon_tb for pointing this out. The latest generation of surveillance cameras not only record what is happening, but are able to perform limited analysis of the scene. These "intelligent video" systems are already able to detect the sound of gunshots, while others are able to recognize faces. Video cameras can also detect people and objects in a scene so that they can track them rather than waste memory on recording the entire area. These systems can alert police when a security threat is detected, and some even play a recorded message to warn off miscreants.

Source: Science Blog The BBC has released on the Web a video series about the Bermuda Triangle. The source indicates that there are two parts to the video, and its source says three. We watched what appeared to be a single one-hour show so there is a bit of confusion in this. The source for the video is http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=566787800055727776&hl=en-GB which has a running time of about an hour.

Source: PhysOrg What kind of background do think you might need to work in movies. Few would say computational fluid dynamics, but that is among the skills required to generate some of the most spectacular special effects you may have seen recently. The American Association for the Advancement of Science recently presented a symposium on the math and science behind recent advances in special effects.

Source: PhysOrg Researchers at Georgia Tech have made engines for satellites more efficient by using a concept similar to a car transmission. Rather than running either full on or off, the motor can operate at one of five speeds, resulting in a potential fuel saving of up to 40%.

Source: Wired An interesting article by sex columnist Regina Lynn (the article and site are worksafe) commenting on the recent conviction of substitute school teacher Julie Amero for exposing children to pornography. In short, while demonstrating something to a class of 12 to 13 year olds on a computer, a pop-up porn ad appeared on the computer. She claims she didn't know how to stop it, and now is facing a sentence of 40 years in prison for her mistake, (or the mistake of whomever was responsible for the classroom's computer). By comparison, convicted murders in Canada can be imprisoned for up to 25 years.

Brain Maps and Global Warming Solutions (kinda)

Source: PhysOrg University of Texas researchers have developed a way to marry light-sensitive nanoparticle films to neurons. The scientists layered two types of ultrathin films on glass before coating that with clay and amino acids. Light passing through the glass causes the sandwiched material to sets up a current through the amino acids. Any cells in contact with this material are depolarized by the current, so if the cell is a neuron then you would have replicated the effect of sending a signal to the neuron. Not only does this provide a way to transmit a signal directly to neurons, it could eventually be adapted to augment or replace retinal cells by converting light into neural impulses. The process would remove the need to implant batteries or perform complex data processing so would be suitable for chronic implantation.

Source: EurekAlert! Researchers at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience have just created BrainMaps.org (found at http://brainmaps.org/) consisting of 50 Terabytes of brain imagery covering a variety of species. The data presents, free to all visitors, detailed images of the brain down to the microscopic level. Think of it as brain porn, and lots of it.

Source: PhysOrg Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian Defense minister, has informed the Ottawa Citizen of what we need to do to combat global warming.... the US government has to make public all the alien technology they have accumulated since the Roswell incident in 1947. When compared to supposedly "realistic" ideas like giant space mirrors, his suggestion appears to be just as feasible any anything else being floated recently (floated being an excellent term to infer the quality of some of these ideas).

Source: PhysOrg Scientists have developed what they are referring to as a "tricorder" which could bring chemical analysis to the streets. The hand held device is a type of miniature mass spectrometer that ionizes particles in the air immediately in front of the device. The device is small (less than 20 pounds), fast (processing times of less than 1 second), and accurate (it was able to detect traces of cocaine on a $50 bill). Although not a replacement for a full laboratory analysis, it maybe sufficient for alerting people to potential contaminants.

Source: ABC News A recent study has apparently confirmed that today's students have become more narcissistic than students were in "my day" (mid-1980s). The results were based on data collected from 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) between 1982 and 2006. The NPI scores have apparently risen steadily between 1982 and 2006.