True, here the fMRI is being used by the defense as a means to elude the death penalty, and only in the sentencing portion of the trial—not as a tool of conviction, as a dubious EEG scan was used to convict a woman of murder in India last year. Specifically, the fMRI scan is being submitted as evidence that the defendant Brian Dugan's brain is abnormal—psychopathic—and so he shouldn't be subject to the death penalty. The jury disagreed, but took 10 hours to reach the decision that the state should kill Dugan for his crime. Without the scan, Dugan's defense attorney says it would've take them an hour.

It's kind of hard to grasp, conceptually, looking inside somebody's brain, literally peering into their mind. It's something from fiction, something paranormal—mind readers and psychics—as a means of detection, a means of determining right and wrong, truth and lies. Brain scans to determine how much punishment your crime merits logically leads into brain scans that figure out whether or not you committed the crime, into scans that reveal every crime you have committed, a persistent and inescapable confessional. What secrets would your brain spill? [Science Mag via Wired]

They're an early precursor of the IUD, called a stem pessary. And yes, they were as dangerous as they look. Condoms seem, like, cuddly by comparison. See more of the horrible evolution of anti-pregnancy technology at Newsweek, just be warned you might instinctively clutch your own private parts in fear: [Newsweek]

But Schule spent Tuesday afternoon calling the FBI, Homeland Security, the Sheriff's Department - every agency he could think of. He was stuck in a bureaucratic limbo.

"Everyone was handing it off to everybody else," Schule said.

He was surprised at the amount of work it took to get the military to pick up its lost missile launcher.

Schule called the military police at Fort Sam. But their jurisdiction doesn't extend off the post. Schule's information was passed along to an Army criminal investigator, who visited Schule on Wednesday morning - about 19 hours after he started making phone calls.

Markings identified the weapon as a guided missile launcher built in 1996. It still has the 13-digit military stock number that will be used to identify its origins and, possibly, how it might have wound up on the property of a man who lives miles from a military installation. Could there be crazy Texans out there hunting deer with black market military missile launchers? Honestly, I wouldn't be that surprised. [MySA News via Neatorama]

That is sexy. Jammable slurry. Wow, a little hot under the collar here. This really is nuts."

It is really nuts indeed: A shape-shifting robot blob that can squeeze through cracks. Sounds familiar? Of course it does. But clearly, this iRobot and Darpa researchers don't read or watch any Sci-Fi material whatsoever.

In any case, ladies and gentlemen, it has been a pleasure and a privilege writing for you. Now, enjoy the rest of your lives. They won't last much more. [JWZ via Make]

When Andrei Melnikov's Sony Ericsson PDA is within about two feet of the stove, an incoming call will make the Maytag Magic Chef stove beep, and the digital display will light up, indicating that the broiler is on high.

Open it up and you'll see the gas flames streaming out of the broiler's burners as it begins cooking anything inside it in 500-plus degree heat.

A Maytag repairman acknowledged the problem and told Melnikov that he needed to order "a suppressor" that would take 7-10 days to arrive. He claims that that this is the first time Maytag has heard of the issue and they are currently looking into it. It's also the first time Melnikov has dealt with it in the years that his family has owned the stove and the phone. Still, a glitch like this is pretty damned unsettling. [1010 WIns via MyFoxDC via Fark]

The story: An unmanned, computerized train slowly rolled forward onto a repairman, who unfortunately did not survive. Authorities haven't come to a conclusion, saying it rolled for "unknown reasons," but we'll leave you, excitable readers, to draw your own conclusions. [via Geekologie]

Update: Sacha, a reader expert in the matter, has wrote to me saying this is not a simulation of a bird striking into a turbo fan, but a simulation of a blade coming loose, which may happen as a result of fatigue or a crack.

...is not a bird test, it's what's called a "blade out" test. Explosive charges are placed on a blade to simulate a blade coming loose — this could happen as a result of fatigue, an unchecked, unseen crack in an engine blade. What you're seeing is essentially "diamond cutting diamond" — and that's why they do the test. Turbo fan blades are extremely strong, and at that speed, they'll chain reaction and destroy each other. You can't really prevent that. But what we don't want is a flying fan blade to hit the fuselage, enter the wing (where fuel is kept), or otherwise leave the engine cowling in any way. That's what this test is for — you want to contain the explosion.

I can hear your confusion: "B-b-b-but, the engine didn't blow up!" — that's because it's not supposed to. We do testing for bird strikes, the engines are built to handle it. They're even designed to continue running, up until a certain size and number of bird ingestions, and beyond that, shut down safely. But they're *never*, ever fragile or brittle enough to be seriously damaged by a hollow-boned soft-bodied bird.

Probably what happened in the US Airways Airbus' engines before its Hudsonlanding.

Actually, here a bird hits the engine in slow motion:

Allegedly, a lot of birds is what caused the US Airways flight to waterland on the Hudson.

That's just what happened to parents in Delaware after they revoked their 16-year old daughter's cellphone privileges for stealing money to buy prepaid minutes. According to police, the girl dual-wielded kitchen knives and violently attacked a bedroom door where her parents were cowering in fear. After around 10 minutes of negotiation, the police were able to diffuse the situation.

In the last few months we have seen a runaway teenager die after having his Xbox 360 taken away, a teenager kill his parents over Halo 3 and 30-year old brothers stab each other over a PS2 controller. Naturally, this begs the question—what the hell is going on here? Is this a parenting issue, a social issue, or a scary psychological disorder that needs to be taken more seriously? [cbs3 via Fark]

An article on the case set to appear in the journal Sleep Medicine explains how the woman in question suffered from severe insomnia and was taking zolpidem—a remedy marketed under several brands (including Ambien). When she upped her dose from the 10 milligrams prescribed by her doctor to 15, she received a call from her friend about a weird email send by the patient to her address. The email subject read: “!HELP ME P-LEEEEESE”, which was apparently an invitation for "dinner and drinks". The message also asked the friend to “come TOMORROW AND SORT THIS HELL HOLE Out!!!!!!”

Doctors were surprised to learn the extent of her ability to engage in complex cognitive actions while sleepwalking. During one incident while sleeping at a relative's house, she was able to start a nearby computer, login to the operating system, load software and then enter her username and password to access her email.

Obviously, this is an isolated case—but it proves that it can happen. As the NYT suggests, it might be a good idea to download that Gmail Goggles add-on after all. [NYT Image via Flickr]

Alex says a department in Florida purchased this costume (that trenchcoat still has the tags on it, Winona Ryder style) recently. It's got a remote to blink the eyes and open the mouth, perfect for simulating an actual voice when you play back sound from an attached MP3 player.

The above image is scary enough, but we're working on getting some video of it in action. Preferably following through with that "I got your drugs right here *rude gesture*" action he's pulling off. [Thanks Alex!]

“The program is simple. You have to click on the photo to tell it where the top of the key is, and a few other control points. From here, it normalizes the key’s size and position. Since each pixel then corresponds to a set distance, it can accurately guess the height of each of the key cuts,” explained Benjamin Laxton, the first author on the paper who recently earned his Master’s degree in computer science from UC San Diego.

The researchers have not released their code to the public, but they claim that anyone with a decent working knowledge of MatLab and computer vision techniques could create a similar system without much difficulty. Their suggestion: treat your keys like you would a credit card.

Thanks for giving us all one more thing to worry about guys. [Sneakey via USCD via Slashdot]

Meet the manikins (not to be confused with mankinis), medical dummies (spelled "manikin", apparently) used to train future doctors on how to do the bare minimum to keep you alive that the HMO will pay for. There are all types, from the sexy Overweight CPR manikin to the Deluxe Child Crisis manikin. My favorite is the Multi Man CPR manikin, because it reminds me of last weekend. Vote on your favorite, then report back here and we'll compare notes. Next week we'll feature Manikin II: On The Move. [Medical Mainikins on Oobject]

The alien is made around a steel armature, with a fully-posable tail, resting on top of a 4 by 2-feet wood base. The head is made of resin and rigid foam, with a vacu-form dome. The body and tails are made of latex and polyfoam. All this plus a potential heart attack will only cost you $5,200, drooling gel not included. [The Contaminated]

Update: The commenters pointed out that it's the alien from Stephen Chow's new movie CJ7. I personally heard the movie was pretty awful, but I haven't actually seen it yet. – JC

In fact, security broke down on a number of levels—including areas where nuclear weapons are stored. To put this baffling stupidity in perspective, consider this: after Col. Joel Westa took command of the 5th Bomb Wing post-nuke debacle, he was quoted as saying that this inspection was going to be the "most scrutinized inspection in the history of time." And the most terrifying part is that the wing will keep its certification to handle nuclear weapons for the foreseeable future. I feel safe...how about you? [Air Force Times via Wired]

Elsewhere, audiophiles on the Head-Fi forums are complaining that the update brought "hiss" and "static" to the classic, and others say that the firmware froze their iPods or restored them inadvertently. (Note: We have not noticed any irregularities like this after extended use with our own updated classic.)

So what's the reason behind all this? Is El Jobso trying to control our minds with hypnotic pulses again? Make us switch to the iPhone? Per usual, Apple does not have any response to the matter. If a new firmware update comes soon, well, that's probably as good a confirmation as we're ever gonna get. [The Street]

It appears that part of the problem is due to the FBI being unable to keep track of their complicated bill. Other problems stem from the telecoms billing the FBI multiple times for individual surveillance warrants. Former FBI agent and now ACLU national security policy counsel Mike German noted that the telecoms were letting the government engage in spying without warrants and allowed them to illegally get customer records. He noted: "To put it bluntly it sounds as though the telecoms believe it when FBI says warrant is in the mail but not when they say the check is in the mail."

If all of this doesn't make you laugh and scare the hell out of you at the same time, I don't know what will. [Wired]