‘Mind over matter’ no longer science fiction

Sitting stone still under a skull cap fitted with a couple dozen electrodes, American scientist Peter Brunner stares at a laptop computer. Without so much as moving a nostril hair, he suddenly begins to compose a message — letter by letter — on a giant screen overhead. “B-O-N-J-O-U-R” he writes with the power of his mind, much to the amazement of the largely French audience of scientists and curious onlookers gathered at the four-day European Research and Innovation Exhibition in Paris, which opened Thursday.

Brunner and two colleagues from the state-financed Wadsworth Center in Albany, New York were demonstrating a “brain computer interface (BCI),” an astounding technology which digitalizes brain signals emitted as electrical impulses — picked up by the electrodes — to convey intent.

While no spoons were bent, this was definitely mind over matter.

Without recourse to nerves or muscles, BCI “can provide communication and control to people who are totally paralyzed” and unable to unable to speak or move, explains researcher Theresa Sellers, also from Wadsworth.

… As Dr. Brunner concentrates on the “B” of “bonjour” in a keyboard-like grid of letters and symbols taking up half the screen, a computer randomly highlights lines of characters in rapid succession.

Each time the row — vertical or horizontal — containing the letter “B” is illuminated, Brunner’s brain emits a slightly stronger signal. It takes the computer about 15 seconds to figure out what letter he is looking at. The system is doubly adaptive, with both the software and the person using it becoming more efficient over time.? - physorg?

‘UFO Hacker’ Tells What He Found

The search for proof of the existence of UFOs landed Gary McKinnon in a world of trouble. After allegedly hacking into NASA websites — where he says he found images of what looked like extraterrestrial spaceships — the 40-year-old Briton faces extradition to the United States from his North London home. If convicted, McKinnon could receive a 70-year prison term and up to $2 million in fines. …
McKinnon: I knew that governments suppressed antigravity, UFO-related technologies, free energy or what they call zero-point energy. This should not be kept hidden from the public when pensioners can’t pay their fuel bills.

WN: Did you find anything in your search for evidence of UFOs?

McKinnon: Certainly did. There is The Disclosure Project. This is a book with 400 testimonials from everyone from air traffic controllers to those responsible for launching nuclear missiles. Very credible witnesses. They talk about reverse-(engineered) technology taken from captured or destroyed alien craft.

… “A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn’t look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture — it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected.

I also got access to Excel spreadsheets. One was titled “Non-Terrestrial Officers.” It contained names and ranks of U.S. Air Force personnel who are not registered anywhere else. It also contained information about ship-to-ship transfers, but I’ve never seen the names of these ships noted anywhere else.” – wired

Consider the possibility that he is now saying what he was told to say in hopes of getting a better deal. For example, what if the Disclosure Project is bogus, a secret operation set up by the Govt.? What about that US Space Navy?

77 million year old mummy reveals Dino secrets

MALTA ? The absolute latest in technology is helping solve a forensics mystery that is 77 million years old.

Five years ago in the badlands north of Malta, paleontologists uncovered a mummified duck-billed brachylophosauruses so well preserved that much of its skin and soft tissue parts remained along with its skeleton. In the years since, scientists have wondered ? if the skin was still there, what about its organs and tissues inside? Technology has finally advanced enough to take a peek. And this week, 20 experts in various fields are X-raying and photographing Leonardo the dinosaur, even parts buried beneath thick sandstone.
“This specimen could be as important to the field of paleontology as the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon,” said Nate Murphy, curator of paleontology at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute. …
His stomach was filled with the fossilized pollen from 33 types of plants, enabling the paleontologists to recreate the world 77 million years ago. Bob Bakker, whose theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded revolutionized and invigorated the field, was on hand in Malta to analyze the recorded images.
He noticed that Leonardo’s nose was incredibly hard and sharp, indicating that he used it like a machete to cut leafy branches off trees. “For 130 years, we paleontologists have had a case of veggiecide,” he said. “We suspected these dinosaurs were plant-eaters, but we didn’t have the smoking jaws, the smoking gut.”

Much of Leonardo remains covered in rock, to protect the fossilized skin, fragile tissues and bones. Until now, the technology didn’t exist to look at what was beneath the sandstone. Starting Monday, scientists and industry leaders donated their time and equipment to advance the study. Over the next 20 months, the Discovery Channel is filming the process for an extensive documentary. …
The [special X-ray equipment emits] as much as 300 kilovolts on Leonardo. Each time the X-ray was used, the scientists evacuated the building, which was roped off as radiation reaches 30 feet beyond the steel walls. Because the rays only damage living tissue, Leonardo’s fragile remains will be completely unharmed. The X-rays were combined with advanced imaging technology from Eastman Kodak that is 10 times as sensitive as film. In one shot, the plate collected the same images that would take dozens of cameras shooting different speeds of film to capture. The computer then sifts through the layers of data, and for that matter sandstone, skin and bone, to Leonardo’s insides.

… One of the most important things discovered so far are half-inch specks that Bakker is jokingly calling blebs. Blebs are basically iron deposits left behind by bacteria. The blebs are randomly spread throughout Leonardo’s insides, and nowhere on the outside. “This is telling us we have a hermetically sealed sarcophagus,” Murphy said.

The evidence goes a long way to justify what many paleontologists are having a hard time believing ? that Leonardo is as well preserved as Murphy says it is and how, after millions of years, that is even possible. Beyond the blebs, Bakker is most interested in studying Leonardo’s stomach and digestive system and his unusually long arms. Unlike most Brachylophosauruses, his arms were long enough to touch the ground, but the joints weren’t strong enough to support the dinosaur’s weight.

Bakker theorizes that the arms may have been used to communicate with a wave or a dance. Or perhaps its fingers were sensitive enough to pick up sound waves from the ground, allowing the creatures to communicate with others miles away by stomping. – more

Fast and cold: 500 billion cycles per second, in fact.

IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technology announced today that their researchers have demonstrated the first silicon-based chip capable of operating at frequencies above 500 GHz — 500 billion cycles per second — by cryogenically ?freezing? the chip to 451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (4.5 Kelvins). Such extremely cold temperatures are found naturally only in outer space, but can be artificially achieved on Earth using ultra-cold materials such as liquid helium. (Absolute Zero, the coldest possible temperature in nature, occurs at minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit).? … Computer simulations suggest that the silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology used in the chip could ultimately support even higher (near-TeraHertz ? 1,000 GHz) operational frequencies even at room temperature.? … SiGe is a process technology in which the electrical properties of silicon, the material underlying virtually all modern microchips, is augmented with germanium to make chips operate more efficiently. SiGe boosts performance and reduces power consumption in chips that go into cellular phones and other advanced communication devices. – ibm