Monkeys with tiny sensors implanted in brain learn to control mechanical arm with just their thoughts

“We are the Borg. Resistance is futile” – from Star Trek

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

By BENEDICT CAREY
The New York Times
Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, scientists reported on Wednesday.

The monkeys used the arm to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported.

The report, released online by the journal Nature, is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology. Scientists expect that technology eventually will allow people with spinal-cord injuries and other paralyzing conditions to gain more control over their lives.

The findings suggest that brain-controlled prosthetics, while not practical, are at least technically within reach.

In previous studies, researchers showed that humans who had been paralyzed for years could learn to control a cursor on a computer screen with their brain waves and that thoughts could move a mechanical arm, a robotic hand, a robot on a treadmill or a small vehicle.

In the new experiment, the monkeys’ brains seem to have adopted the mechanical appendage as their own, refining its movement as it interacted with real objects in real time. The monkeys had their own arms gently restrained while they learned to use the added one.

Experts not involved with the study said the findings were likely to accelerate interest in human testing, especially given the need to treat head and spinal injuries in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This study really pulls together all the pieces from earlier work and provides a clear demonstration of what’s possible,” said William Heetderks, director of the extramural science program at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

John P. Donoghue, director of the Institute of Brain Science at Brown University, said the new report was “important because it’s the most comprehensive study showing how an animal interacts with complex objects, using only brain activity.”

The researchers, from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, used monkeys partly because of their anatomical similarities to humans and partly because they are quick learners.

In the experiment, two macaques first used a joystick to gain a feel for the arm, which had shoulder joints, an elbow and a grasping claw with two mechanical fingers.

Then, just beneath the monkeys’ skulls, the scientists implanted a grid about the size of a large freckle. It sat on the motor cortex, over a patch of cells known to signal arm and hand movements. The grid held 100 tiny electrodes, each connecting to a single neuron, its wires running out of the brain and to a computer.

The computer was programmed to analyze the collective firing of these 100 motor neurons, translate that sum into an electronic command and send it instantaneously to the arm, which was mounted flush with the left shoulder.

The scientists used the computer to help the monkeys move the arm at first, essentially teaching them with biofeedback.

After several days, the monkeys needed no help. They sat stationary in a chair, repeatedly manipulating the arm with their brain to reach out and grab grapes, marshmallows and other nuggets dangled in front of them. The snacks reached the mouths about two-thirds of the time – an impressive rate, compared with earlier work.

The monkeys learned to hold the grip open on approaching the food, close it just enough to hold the food and gradually loosen the grip when feeding.

On several occasions, a monkey kept its claw open on the way back, with the food stuck to one finger. At other times, a monkey moved the arm to lick the fingers clean or to push a bit of food into its mouth while ignoring a new morsel.

The animals were apparently freelancing, discovering new uses for the arm, showing “displays of embodiment that would never be seen in a virtual environment,” the researchers wrote.

“In the real world, things don’t work as expected,” said the senior author of the paper, Andrew Schwartz, a professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh. “The marshmallow sticks to your hand or the food slips, and you can’t program a computer to anticipate all of that. But the monkeys’ brains adjusted. They were licking the marshmallow off the prosthetic gripper, pushing food into their mouth, as if it were their own hand.”

Co-authors were Meel Velliste, Sagi Perel, M. Chance Spalding and Andrew Whitford.

Scientists have to clear several hurdles before this technology becomes practical, experts said. Implantable electrode grids do not generally last more than a period of months, for reasons that remain unclear.

The equipment to read and transmit the signal can be cumbersome and in need of continual monitoring and recalibrating. And no one has yet demonstrated a workable wireless system that would eliminate the need for connections through the scalp.

Yet Schwartz’s team, Donoghue’s group and others are working on all of the problems, and the two macaques’ rapid learning curve in taking ownership of a foreign limb gives scientists confidence that the main obstacles are technical and, thus, negotiable.

In an editorial accompanying the Nature study, John F. Kalaska, a neuroscientist at the University of Montreal, said that after such bugs had been worked out, scientists might even discover areas of the cortex that allow more subtle control of prosthetic devices.

Such systems, he wrote, “would allow patients with severe motor deficits to interact and communicate with the world not only by the moment-to-moment control of the motion of robotic devices, but also in a more natural and intuitive manner that reflects their overall goals, needs and preferences.”

http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/640239.html

Man arrested in Texas for trying to cash $360 billion check

Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company. The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious — perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off.

Fuller, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.

Fuller said his girlfriend’s mother gave him the check to start a record business. But bank employees who contacted the account’s owner said the woman told them she did not give him permission to take or cash the check.

In addition to the forgery count, Fuller was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and possessing marijuana. Officers reported finding less than two ounces of marijuana and a .25-caliber handgun and magazine in his pockets.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080502/ap_on_fe_st/odd_check_for_billions

Parents Argue Over Which Gang 4-Year-Old Son Should Join

It’s great to know that these parents have their priorities in order. – GT

Friday, April 11, 2008

A fight about the decision led to a public disturbance with the father’s arrest. Joseph Manzanares went to the video store where his girlfriend worked, threatened to kill her and knocked over several video displays, police told KMGH Denver.

Police arrested Manzanares at his home, Commerce City police Sgt. Joe Sandoval told KMGH Denver.

The girlfriend told authorities they were fighting over which gang their son should join. The girlfriend, who is black, is a member of the Crips while Manzanares, who is Hispanic, belongs to the Westside Ballers.

“They have different ideas on how the baby should be raised,” Sandoval said. “Basically, she said they cannot agree on which gang the baby would ‘claim.’”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,350249,00.html

Man Is Flung From Roof of His Speeding Minivan, Runs Naked Along Highway

In Pennsylvania, a naked man who was catapulted from a moving minivan, Tazered three times and finally tackled to the ground by police is in fair condition this weekend, it is reported.

According to the Reading Eagle newspaper, police say they responded to calls Friday from frantic motorists who reported seeing a man climb on top of his minivan roof while it was moving about 55 miles per hour, and watched as he was flung into the woods as the vehicle crashed into a highway guide rail.

Witnesses said the man then climbed up an embankment, took off his clothes and ran on the shoulder of a busy highway bleeding from a foot-long gash in his side, the paper said.

Police Tazered the man three times to try to restrain him. They finally had to tackle him to ground, according to reports.

The man was taken to Reading Hospital in critical condition where toxicology tests were conducted.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,347028,00.html

Researchers: Asteroid Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

An Interesting Idea!

A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for 150 years has been identified as a witness’s account of the asteroid suspected of being behind the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that it recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across.

The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700 B.C. copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky.

He referred to the asteroid as a “white stone bowl approaching” and recorded it as it “vigorously swept along.”

Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, scientists have pinpointed his sighting to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123 B.C.

About half the symbols on the tablet have survived and half of those refer to the asteroid. The other symbols record the positions of clouds and constellations. In the past 150 years scientists have made five unsuccessful attempts to translate the tablet.

Mark Hempsell, one of the researchers from Bristol University who cracked the tablet’s code, said: “It’s a wonderful piece of observation, an absolutely perfect piece of science.”

He said the size and route of the asteroid meant that it was likely to have crashed into the Austrian Alps at Köfels. As it traveled close to the ground it would have left a trail of destruction from supersonic shock waves and then slammed into the Earth with a cataclysmic impact.

Debris consisting of up to two-thirds of the asteroid would have been hurled back along its route and a flash reaching temperatures of 400 Centigrade (752 Fahrenheit) would have been created, killing anyone in its path.

About one million sq kilometers (386,000 sq miles) would have been devastated and the impact would have been equivalent to more than 1,000 tons of TNT exploding.

Dr Hempsall said that at least 20 ancient myths record devastation of the type and on the scale of the asteroid’s impact, including the Old Testament tale of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the ancient Greek myth of how Phaeton, son of Helios, fell into the River Eridanus after losing control of his father’s sun chariot.

The findings of Dr. Hempsall and Alan Bond, of Reaction Engines Ltd., are published in a book, “A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels Impact Event.”

The researchers say that the asteroid’s impact would explain why at Köfels there is evidence of an ancient landslide 3 miles wide and a quarter of a mile thick.

Tale of devastation

“Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven; and he overthrew those cities and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities … [Abraham] looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”

Source: Genesis 19:24-28

Librarian fired for reporting child pornography

A bizarre battle has erupted over the arrest on child pornography charges of a man at a California public library, with library and county officials siding against the staffer who called police to arrest the alleged criminal.Librarian Brenda Biesterfeld was fired from her job after disregarding her supervisor’s orders not to call police.

Now a pro-family organization and a law firm are rallying support for her.

“We’ve come alongside her, providing media training and legal representation,” said Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families, a prominent pro-family leadership group. “Our goal is to get Brenda’s job back, to institute a new library policy that has no tolerance for obscenity and child pornography, and to send a nationwide message that child predators will not be allowed to ‘do their thing’ in libraries.”

Mathew Staver, head of Liberty Counsel, said his organization has sent a demand letter to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors challenging the librarian’s dismissal.

The incident developed on Feb. 28 when Beisterfeld, a single mother, was working in the Lindsay Branch library, and she noticed Donny Lynn Chrisler, 39, viewing child porn on one of the public-use computers.

“She immediately went to her supervisor, Judi Hill, who instructed her to give him a warning and explain that on his second warning he would be banned from the library,” Liberty Counsel said. “When Biesterfeld asked if she should call the police, Hill told her not to and that the library would handle it internally.”

She also was told that “this happens more often than she would think.”

Biesterfeld was so unnerved by the situation, she talked with police the next day. Then on March 4, when Chrisler returned, Biesterfeld saw him viewing more child porn and called police.

“When police officers arrived they caught Chrisler viewing the child pornography, arrested him, and placed him in the Tulare County Jail, where he remains on $10,000 bail,” Liberty Counsel said. “Further investigation uncovered more child pornography in Chrisler’s home.”

But when police confiscated the computer from the library, Hill confronted them and said they had no business enforcing the child pornography law within the library.

“Even after the police captain explained that a federal law had been violated, making it a legal matter to be handled by police, Hill never offered to help,” Liberty Counsel said. “Instead, she demanded to know who made the report.”

Even though police investigators concealed Biesterfeld’s name, Hill claimed she knew who it was, and within 20 minutes the captain got a call from Biesterfeld saying Hill had called her and rebuked her. Two days later and without explanation Biesterfeld was fired.

The law firm’s letter demands Biesterfeld’s reinstatement and that the library change its policy to prevent the use of library property for illegal behavior and to establish a prompt reporting system.

Mayor Ed Murray submitted a similar request to the county, officials said.

“Brenda Biesterfeld had a moral and a legal responsibility to report to police a library patron whom she observed viewing child pornography,” said Staver. “It is outrageous that the Lindsay Branch library fired Ms. Biesterfeld for reporting child pornography. Child Pornography is a despicable crime against children.”

Thomasson said the local battle, however, has national implications.

“We’re also defending children nationwide,” he said. “You see, the American Library Association, which is the controlling influence over libraries nationwide, views pornography and obscenity as ‘intellectual freedom.’ Because of this, many libraries in the U.S. allow child pornographers to use their Internet system undetected and unreported. Is it any wonder why child molestation has become so common?”

According to the association’s own web page regarding intellectual freedom and censorship, it is not the work of a library to protect children from material that is “legally obscene.”

“Governmental institutions cannot be expected to usurp or interfere with parental obligations and responsibilities when it comes to deciding what a child may read or view,” the ALA says.

It also defines “intellectual freedom” as the right to see material “without restriction.” Those who object to obscenity and its availability are “censors,” who “try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate.”

“Each of us as the right to read, view, listen to, and disseminate constitutionally protected ideas, even if a censor finds those ideas offensive,” the ALA states.

“Censors might sincerely believe that certain materials are so offensive, or present ideas that are so hateful and destructive to society, that they simply must not see the light of day. Others are worried that younger or weaker people will be badly influenced by bad ideas, and will do bad things as a result,” the ALA said.

That was the point Steve Baldwin, a former California lawmaker, was making when he previously penned a column citing a report from the Family Research Council.

“A 2000 report by the Family Research Council details how its researchers sent out surveys to every librarian in America asking questions about access to pornography. Despite efforts by the ALA to stop its members from responding, 462 librarians did respond. Their replies revealed 472 instances of children assessing pornography, 962 instances of adults accessing pornography, 106 instances of adults exposing children to pornography, five attempted child molestations, 144 instances of child porn being accessed and 25 instances of library staff being harassed by those viewing pornography. Over 2,062 total porn-related incidents were reported by a mere 4.6 percent of our nation’s librarians so one can assume the number of incidents is probably twenty times higher,” he reported.

He wrote that the “bias” of the ALA is obvious.

“When parent groups have offered to place books in libraries with conservative themes or are critical of the left, the ALA’s claims of being First Amendment guardians suddenly look fraudulent. When one parent tried to donate George Grant’s book, ‘Killer Angel,’ a critical biography of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, the library sent a letter stating that ‘the author’s political and social agenda…is not appropriate.’ Huh? A biographical book with zero profanity is banned but books that feature the ‘F’ word a hundred times are sought after with zeal. Go figure,” Baldwin wrote.

Thomasson called on librarians across the country to report child pornography to law enforcement whenever it happens.

“The liberals who run the library system in America must stop violating the federal law because they regard child pornography as ‘free speech,’” he said. “All pornography is immoral, but possession of child pornography is a federal crime. No librarian should fear reporting child pornography to the police, but libraries that fail to report these crimes should be very afraid. Brenda Biesterfeld will get her job back, and more.”

Biesterfeld said she felt intimidated by Hill after the police investigation was launched. “She kind of threatened me,” Biesterfeld said. “She said I worked for the county, and when the county tells you to do something, you do what the county tells you. She said I had no loyalty to the county. I told her I was a mother and a citizen also, and not just a county employee.”

The dismissal letter from Tulare County Librarian Brian Lewis said probationary employees can be fired if they don’t perform at a level “necessary for fully satisfactory performance.”

But Thomasson reported a Lindsay city councilwoman said she’d been told just a few weeks earlier Biesterfeld was doing a great job.

The city of Lindsay also has complained to the county about Hill’s “abrupt, demanding and demeaning” telephone call to police telling them to halt their pornography investigation.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59457

Kansas Police: Woman Pried From Boyfriend’s Toilet After Sitting on It for 2 Years

I’m speechless. What can you say about a story like this?

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. – Deputies say a woman in western Kansas became stuck on her boyfriend’s toilet after sitting on it for two years.

Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman’s skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

“We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital,” Whipple said. “The hospital removed it.”

Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman’s 36-year-old boyfriend.

“She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body,” Whipple said. “It is hard to imagine. … I still have a hard time imagining it myself.”

He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.

“And her reply would be, `Maybe tomorrow,”‘ Whipple said. “According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom.”

The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that “there was something wrong with his girlfriend,” Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.

Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was “somewhat disoriented,” and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.

“She said that she didn’t need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave,” he said.

She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.

Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.

Police have declined to release the couple’s names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.

The case has been the buzz Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.

“I don’t think anybody can make any sense out of it,” he said.

Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.

He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.

“It really doesn’t surprise me,” Ellis said of the bathroom incident. “What surprises me is somebody wasn’t called in a bit earlier.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337232,00.html

Police Rescue Naked Florida Man from Alligator – for the Second Time!

Going into alligator infested waters – Dumb. Going into alligator infested waters naked – Dumber. Going into alligator infested waters naked more than once – Wow!

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Police Rescue Naked Florida Man From Alligator-Infested Waters … Again
Saturday, March 08, 2008

Bit once by an alligator, blame the gator.

Go wading through alligator-infested Florida waters another time? Police say blame the naked, dazed risk-taker who seems to have a fatalistic attachment to the scaly beasts, according to a report by MyFOXTampaBay.com.

The gator-lover, Adrian Apgar, was naked and high on crack one night a little over a year ago when he lost an arm to a 12-foot alligator, the TV station reports. Then on Thursday, police found him naked again wading in Saddle Creek with a gator only about 50 feet away.

“Do I think he went there to commit suicide by alligator? I don’t think so. I think he is just bizarre and takes those risks,” Polk Sheriff Grady Judd told MyFOXTampaBay.com.

Deputies fished him out and arrested him, and he is undergoing psychiatric examination, according to the report.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336172,00.html