Scientific American has a recent article surveying the development of brain to computer interfaces up to recent prototypes that attempt recognise the neurological activity associated with controlling the muscles for speech and translating that into synthetic speech. Very interesting.

From Putting Thoughts into Action: Implants Tap the Thinking Brain: Scientific American

Automatic content generator for your blog. Ugh!

I wonder what happens if you feed in a journal article and whether something like Turnitin would work on it?

See: Datapresser.com

A couple of quizzes from Elections New Zealand on MMP voting in the upcoming general election.

The first one – MMP Quiz – is pretty easy (if you’ve been paying attention during recent general elections).

The second one – Advanced MMP Quiz – had me stumped in a number of places.

A good chance to test yourself and your electoral knowledge.

This looks good. NZ On Screen is a new web site that provides access to television, film, music video and new media produced in NZ, along with knowledgeable background information.

The two best teams in the Air NZ Cup play in the final tonight – Wellington and Canterbury. History tends to favour Canterbury, though I think we’ve got a good chance tonight. As with all these things it will come done to mental preparation and doing the little things right. (Oh, and finding some kryptonite for Richie McCaw ).

Flying out on Thursday to the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in Chicago. I’ll be presenting at the “Religion and Transhumanism” consultation on Saturday and looking forward to meeting various people also interested in that and other things related to science, technology & religion.

I imagine it’ll be an interesting experience in cultural anthropology – the combination of American Halloween (which, in spite of the best efforts of retailers and US-centred TV, we don’t celebrate here in NZ much/at all) and US presidential elections will be make for interesting cultural viewing.

It’s a bit of a long haul to get there – Auckland-San Francisco-Chicago – and I have to hurry back for final assessment and reporting for the year, but hopefully all will go smoothly.

Anyone else going to be there?

I’m looking for some film titles to list as recommended viewing for students of science, technology and religion. I’ve got a selection already but I’m always interested in seeing what other people have found useful.

Add you suggestions as a comment.

Xenotransplantation clinical trials where pig tissue is transplanted into humans in order to help treat diabetes have been given provisional approval by the Minister of Health. Should make for some interesting discussion.

See Go-ahead for pig cell trial on humans – National News – Dominion Post.

See also the xenotransplantation information at Publications [Bioethics Council].

A couple of interesting posts over on io9.com:

• Steal This Pitch: What Other Classics Need To Be Given The Odyssey Treatment? talks in passing about creating sci-fi based on biblical stories. (HT James)

• Green Lantern: Green Lantern’s Epic Space-Hero Script Gets A B-Minus. See also Newsarama.com : Guggenheim on the Green Lantern Movie & Rumors. Hopefully this works out well.

Just back from a weekend in Kawerau, down there for the 50th celebrations of Edgecumbe All Saints and St Margaret’s Kawerau Anglican churches. A bit of a drive there and back, but a good weekend overall. Good sermon too, on using the event as an opportunity not only to look back but also to look forward to new possibilities.