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Researchers in a joint effort from America and Israel were able to finally record the process of short term memories coming to light. Until now it was only theory that this process was what caused memories to be remembered.

The study was conducted with epilepsy patients, and was actually a quite simple procedure. When epileptics have to have surgery, their brains are fed with tiny electrodes so doctors can find where the brain’s activity is being performed. It’s with this process that the researchers were able to locate the brain cells responsible for our short term memories.

When the electrodes were implanted, researchers showed each of the patients different clips of television shows. Then after awhile, they would begin to ask questions about the show, and they could record the brain activity when the patients responded. When this happened, they were finally able to locate where in the brain the process was happening. And actually see it happening.

The findings of something like this is extraordinary. With the knowledge of knowing how and where our short term memory is occurring, we can use it for other research. Alzheimer’s is the most obvious application in which this discovery will make its’ mark. Since Alzheimer’s affects short term memory more than other brain functions, this recent research could provide much needed information. Let’s hope that it can do just that.

[via: NYT]

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Today’s Sign of the Apocalypse has a pretty uplifting feel to it. So I guess you could argue that it’s not a sign of doom but of hope. I can appreciate this view, but I think it shows how low people actually are; and what’s scary is that they’re out there. To get your elephants.

An elephant that had once been addicted to heroin is finally ready to come back into the wild. The heroin addict elephant was captured by illegal traders in 2005. To keep the elephant subdued, they fed it heroin laced bananas.

Once the traders were arrested, authorities found that the elephant had become addicted to the heroin. They sent him to an animal protection center to undergo rehab. He was injected with methadone, at 5x the recommended dosage for humans. The detox program for the elephant lasted a whopping three years. He’s now ready to be released, and will find sanctuary at a wildlife park in China.

So there you have it, a story of hope along with despair. I hope that the traders get the maximum penalty, as there’s no telling what they’d have tried next. Cocaine laced spider monkeys? Actually I don’t think that would help the situation.

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Here is a list of new features Picasa 3 will have for all of you:

-Syncing of Picasa 3 With Your Online Photo Albums
-Further Re-touching options
-A more streamlined Picasa Photo Viewer
-Create movies with Windows Media Player

One of the huge features that Google doesn’t mention on their site is the new facial recognition technology. With Picasa 3 when you tag someone in your photo, Picasa will remember the structure of the face. Then when you put in a new photo, it will suggest a tag name for the person it detects. I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet, so please let me know if you’re able to find anything.

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The view of cell phones in the classroom is starting to change, with Abilene Christian University being at the front of the pack. Two-thirds of the freshmen class (950 students) will be provided with 3G iPhones. Lucky punks. The handsets will be used to brainstorm, and interact with other students along with the teachers. Teachers will be able to use the phones as a mean for maintaining attendance as well.

An interesting stat to look at is in a recent survey of teens, around 71% of them owned a cell phone while only 59% owned computers.

Of course the big winners is the cell phone companies which are quick to adopt the new wireless revolution in the classroom. Hewlett Packard is developing tools that teachers can use to enhance the classroom; Mediascape.

[via: MacNewsWorld]

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Today’s Sign is one in which I actually would like to be involved in. The country of Spain has to have the coolest events/festivals in the entire world. They have the “Running Of The Bulls”, where we get to see idiots running down a street being chased by multi-ton creatures with horns on top of their heads. Now I’ve found yet another massively awesome event to attend once I visit Spain. The annual tomato fight.

Buñol, Spain is host to the annual Tomatina festival, in which hundreds of thousands of people line the streets to throw tomatoes at each other. It doesn’t really seem to me that their honoring the fruit all that much, considering it’s all going to waste. I’m all about this event though. Food fights were one of those things during school you always wanted to see happen, but very few were ever silly enough to engage in. This event could help me realize that dream. Here’s a video of one of the festivals in years past.

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The hype machine continues to build today, as the launch is nearly upon us. Here’s a preview video to keep you tided until it does release. And a comic book as well.

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Today will mark as the crudest I’ve ever been on TechKills. If you’re easily offended by words such as oral sex, or fellatio then you can go ahead and stop reading. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to today’s sign and one I’m almost too grossed out to write about.

A doctor/dentist who goes by the simple name, ‘Dr. Joe’ had quite a unique case on his hands a few years ago. One of his elderly patients was complaining of a problem she was having with her boyfriend. Apparently her dentures were getting in the way of giving her boyfriend oral sex. It seems that her dentures rattled when performing it. Dr. Joe (lol) advised the woman to just take them out. The elderly woman said that her b/f didn’t know that she wore them. Hence the predicament.

Dr. Joe created a mouth guard for her that would keep the dentures in place during oral sex. She came back for a check up later, and praised the mouth guard and its results. Dr. Joe didn’t stop there though, because the thought of the case plagued his mind. It would plague mine too, but I’d be curled up in a corner somewhere with the thoughts of it. Instead of getting in the fetal position, Dr. Joe actually ran with the idea and got his creative mind working.

The product of his thinking would come to be called the, “Blowguard”. It’s a mouth guard just like the one he created for his patient, only it vibrates and is sold as a sex toy. Him and his wife were the first to test it and were ’satisfied’ with the results. Apparently the sex toy is an underground sensation with the senior crowd.

It’s the thought of stories such as these that make me cry at night. The image of it will be forever brazened in my head. Again, this is yet another reason why our world is headed for disaster.

Blowguard.com, in case you were wondering if it’s real.

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Here’s the addition on the User Agreement if you don’t believe me:

It’s no secret we’ve been evaluating a specific monthly data usage or bandwidth threshold for our Comcast High-Speed Internet residential customers for some time. Rumors circulated online last year and they popped up again in May.

As stated above the new monthly data usage threshold will officially take effect starting October 1st. We are notifying customers in a number of ways. For example, we have posted a preview of the amended AUP as a PDF on this page. We are also running banner notices on our Comcast.net home page and on our Security Channel Web page to alert customers about this upcoming change. In addition, we have provided a number of FAQs that are available at http://help.comcast.net/content/faq/Frequently-Asked-
Questions-about-Excessive-Use. Finally, we will also notify our customers directly by including an insert (also called a bill stuffer) in an upcoming monthly billing statement.

All you downloading fanatics might need to find a new ship to do your pirating on. When I say “you”, I mean me as well. Wait, I was just kidding.

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Anytime I get to write about video games it always brings a smile to my face. Even if I’m writing about news that could be leading us to our impending doom. Atleast we’ll have fun video games to play on the way, right?

Spore, is a game that has really been put through the hype machine. Ever since the release of the Creature Creator there have been thousands of monsters uploaded to the Sporepedia. If you’ve played around with the Creature Creator, then you know there are a ton of options, and that’s with it not at full potential. With such options it’s possible for people to create monsters with “dirty” features. You can make monsters with gigantic breasts, or create phallic looking monsters.

Will Wright gave a light hearted response to the sexual Spore entries, “When you give players creative control, you have to expect they’re going to do the unexpected…Some of it’s really good for what they were shooting for. It’s amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren’t messing up the experience for others”

EA on the other hand has taken a full hands on approach, and vows to make sure these monsters are censored. They have even labeled the creatures as ‘Sporn’. I’m not really sure that’s fair; these monsters didn’t decide to look a certain way. How dare you claim to have the right to eradicate a species because it exposes its nipples!

I’m not quite sure what’s more sad…The people who find enjoyment in creating these naughty looking monsters and uploading them. Or that EA has actually given a name to the monsters and deemed them outcasts. Either way it’s but another example of why the world is heading towards doom.

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