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OB OY Le VEN? ROBOT AVATAR BODY CONTROLLED BY 4 THOUGHT ALONE or the first time, ‘ researchers have used MRI—which detects your brain activity in real time— o allow someone to embody a robot hundreds of kilometres away using hought alone. "The ultimate goal is to create a surrogate, like in Avatar, although that's a ) ong way off yet,” says Abderrahmane Kheddar, director of the CNRS-AIST oint Robotics Laboratory ai he National Institute o Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba, Japan. He is part of an international team that hopes to use this kind o technology to give healthy people and those who are "locked in"— unable to move, but fully conscious—the ability to interac with the world using a surrogate body. Tele-operated robots, those tha can be controlled remotely by a human, have been around for decades. Kheddar and_ his colleagues are going a step further. “True embodiment goes far beyond classical telepresence, by making you feel that the thing you are embodying is part of you," says Kheddar. (Source: New Scientist, 12 July 2012) UK MINISTRY RELEASES MORE UFO FILES No released files from \ the UK ational Archives reveal the role of Ministry of Defence (MoD) UFO Desk officers, what hey thought about possible alien visits to Earth and heir ideas on using alien echnology for warfare. There are 25 files, comprising more than 6,700 pages, that include UFO policy, parliamentary questions, media issues, public correspondence and, of course, UFO sighting reports. Overall, more than 0,000 UFO reports came hrough the special MoD unit from 950 to 2009. "These are probably the most ascinating and bizarre government iles ever made available to the public,” said Nick Pope, who was the UFO Desk officer from 1991 to 1994. "There's massive public interest in UFOs, and at one point the MoD was getting more Freedom of nformation Act requests about UFOs than any other subject," Pope said. "The files contain the usual mixture of policy documents, are sighting reports, photos, sketches, and papers discussing how best to andle the subject with Parliament, he media and the public.” Previous batches of UFO files were released by the UK in March 2011, anuary 2010, October 2008, May 2008 and May 2007. These latest UFO files are available to be viewed by the public or free for one month at ttp://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk. (Source: HuffingtonPost.com, 12 July 2012, http://tinyurl.com/6rv28z5) WHEN ARE You ING To STOP =o arent iad ME? wHeEern ARe You GoiNG To STOP Fo ret ied ME ? ZEN MEDITATORS TAP INTO SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES editation increases our ability to tap into the hidden recesses of our brain that are usually outside the reach of our conscious awareness. That's according to Madelijn Strick and colleagues, of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who tested whether meditation has an effect on our ability to pick up subliminal messages. 8 * NEXUS samerville AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2012 www.nexusmagazine.com