Weird Science: Quadcopter Robot Controlled Using Only Brain Waves (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have demonstrated that brain waves can control the movement of a quadcopter, flying the robot up, down, forward, backward and through hoops.

Using only a skull cap with electrodes that picks up on the brain activity – not a fancy or invasive chip implanted in the brain — the researchers hope the idea could someday be used for people who don’t have the ability to speak or control their limbs.

It may even help patients with conditions like stroke or Alzheimer’s disease. We’re now studying some stroke patients to see if it’ll help rewire brain circuits to bypass damaged areas,” Karl LaFleur, first author of the study and senior biomedical engineering student who is going on to medical school, said according to the university.

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Jay Leno Scores Big with Joke: Forget Gitmo — Close the IRS

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Photo Credit: AP

The audience at a taping of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” erupted in cheers and applause earlier this week when host Jay Leno joked about the need to close the Internal Revenue Service…

His exact words: “President Obama says he’s renewing his efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo Bay? How about closing the IRS? Why don’t we do that?”

Loud applause broke out, and then Mr. Leno continued: “How about shipping the IRS to Guantanamo Bay? That’s what we — yes. That’s how you do it.”

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Maori Legend of Man-Eating Bird is True

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Photo Credit: independent.co.uk

A Maori legend about a giant, man-eating bird has been confirmed by scientists. Te Hokioi was a huge black-and-white predator with a red crest and yellow-green tinged wingtips, in an account given to Sir George Gray, an early governor of New Zealand. It was said to be named after its cry and to have “raced the hawk to the heavens”. Scientists now think the stories handed down by word of mouth and depicted in rock drawings refer to Haast’s eagle, a raptor that became extinct just 500 years ago, shows their study in The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei) was discovered in swamp deposits by Sir Julius von Haast in the 1870s. But it was at first thought to be a scavenger because its bill was similar to a vulture’s with hoods over its nostrils to stop flesh blocking its air passages as it rooted around inside carcasses.

But a re-examination of skeletons using modern technology, including CAT scans, by researchers at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch and the University of New South Wales in Australia showed it had a strong enough pelvis to support a killing blow as it dived at speeds of up to 80kph.

With a wingspan of up to three metres and weighing 18kg, the female was twice as big as the largest living eagle, the Steller’s sea eagle.

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Harris Poll: Only a Third of U.S. Adults are Happy

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Photo Credit: Candie_N (Welcome Spring)

Only a third of U.S. adults say they are very happy — minorities show particularly pronounced declines in the past two years, a U.S. survey indicates.

A Harris Poll of 2,345 U.S. adults surveyed online April 10-15 by Harris Interactive found certain groups, such as minorities, recent graduates and the disabled, trended downward in the last couple of years.

“Our happiness index offers insight into what’s on the minds of Americans today and is a reflection of the state of affairs in our country,” Regina Corso, senior vice president of the Harris Poll, said in a statement. “While the attitudes on the economy may be improving, we’re seeing that this is not translating into an improvement in overall happiness.”

Since last measured two years ago, the Happiness Index was especially low among the Hispanic-American population.

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Ex-Microsoft Manager Plans to Create First U.S. Marijuana Brand

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Photo Credit: Reuters

A former Microsoft executive plans to create the first U.S. national marijuana brand, with cannabis he hopes to eventually import legally from Mexico, and said he was kicking off his business by acquiring medical pot dispensaries in three U.S. states.

Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, said he envisions his Seattle-based enterprise becoming the leader in both recreational and medical cannabis – much like Starbucks is the dominant name in coffee, he said.

Shively, 45, whose six years at Microsoft ended in 2009, said he was soliciting investors for $10 million in start-up money.

The use, sale and possession of marijuana remains illegal in the United States under federal law. Two U.S. states have, however, legalized recreational marijuana use and are among 18 states that allow it for medical use.

“It’s a giant market in search of a brand,” Shively said of the marijuana industry. “We would be happy if we get 40 percent of it worldwide.”

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Illegal, Genetically Modified Wheat, Discovered Growing in Oregon Field (+video)

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Photo Credit: USGS

Unapproved genetically engineered wheat has been discovered in an Oregon field, a potential threat to trade with countries that have concerns about genetically modified foods.

The Agriculture Department said Wednesday that the genetically engineered wheat is safe to eat and there is no evidence that modified wheat entered the marketplace. But the department is investigating how it ended up in the field, whether there was any criminal wrongdoing and whether its growth is widespread.

“We are taking this very seriously,” said Michael Firko of the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

A farmer discovered the genetically modified plants on his farm and contacted Oregon State University, which notified USDA early this month, Firko said.

No genetically engineered wheat has been approved for U.S. farming. USDA officials said the wheat is the same strain as a genetically modified wheat that was legally tested by seed giant Monsanto a decade ago but never approved. Monsanto stopped testing that product in Oregon and several other states in 2005.

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Cowboy-Style Cap Gun Gets 5-year-old Suspended From School in Calvert County

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A kindergartner who brought a cowboy-style cap gun onto his Calvert County school bus was suspended for 10 days after showing a friend the orange-tipped toy, which he had tucked inside his backpack on his way to school, according to his family and a lawyer.

The child was questioned for more than two hours before his mother was called, she said, adding that he uncharacteristically wet his pants during the episode. The boy is 5 — “all bugs and frogs and cowboys,” his mother said.

“I have no problem that he had a consequence to his behavior,” said the mother, who asked that her name be withheld to protect her son’s privacy.

“What I have a problem with is the severity,” she said, and the way it was handled.

The family’s attorney appealed the suspension late Thursday, asking that the action be reversed and the child’s record be expunged.

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Supposedly 15,000 Year-Old Mammoth Cut Open, Blood Pours Out

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Photo Credit: AFP

The frozen body of a 10,000 to 15,000 year old mammoth found on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean has yielded a stunning find: blood so well preserved that it flowed freely from the ancient mammal, according to Russian scientists.

Scientists with the Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, North-Eastern Federal University, and the Russian Geographical Society announced on Wednesday the amazing news, following the study of the carcass of a female mammoth in good preservation on Lyakhovsky Islands of Novosibirsk archipelago.

“The blood is very dark, it was found in ice cavities below the belly and when we broke these cavities with a poll pick, the blood came running out,” said Semyon Grigoriev, the head of the expedition and chairman of the Mammoth Museum.

“Interestingly, the temperature at the time of excavation was -7 to – 10 degrees Celsius [19.4 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit]. It may be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryoprotective properties.”

The muscle tissue of the frozen carcass was also stunning — the color of fresh meat, Grigoriev said, totally unlike meat that is centuries old.

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Beaver Bites, Kills Fisherman (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

The horrific injury of a fisherman who died after being bitten by a beaver when trying to take a picture of the animal has been pictured.

The image shows the 60-year-old man’s wounded leg following the incident at Lake Shestakov in Belarus.

The man was attacked as he approached the beaver to take its picture and later bled to death as a result of his injuries

His friends desperately tried to staunch the blood welling up from the wound but the animal’s bite had severed a major artery and his life could not be saved.

The man, from Brest, was pronounced dead when he arrived at Sulim’s clinic in the village of Ostromechevo.

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Workers PO’d: Union Boss Makes $156K per Year, Reportedly Works Two Hours per Day

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Photo Credit; NY PostUnion fat cat Mark Rosenthal spends more time sleeping at his desk than organizing labor, a series of damning photos reveals.

The 400-pound president of Local 983 of District Council 37 — the city’s largest blue-collar municipal-workers union — often downs a huge meal, then drops into dreamland in the early afternoon, members of the union’s executive board told The Post.

“He eats lunch when he arrives at work at 2 p.m. Then, like clockwork, he goes to sleep with a cup of soda on the table and the straw in it,” said Marvin Robbins, a union vice president.

“Then he wakes up, looks at his watch and says, ‘I have to get out before the traffic gets bad.’ He’s usually out by 4 p.m. after being at the office two hours.”

Rosenthal is a former Parks Department employee who rose to power campaigning to rid the union of corruption in the late 1990s.

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