Real Jurassic Park, Seinfeld in Space, Seeing-Eye Robot Dogs and More Mysterious News Briefly — April 6, 2021

Mysterious News Briefly — April 6, 2021

Researchers at the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center and Yale University analyzed brain scans of 3,279 healthy adults mostly from the Northeast United States and found that the average volumes of their brains changed depending upon the time of year. Is this why so many act dumber during Spring Break?

Those ever-growing algae blooms that are so harmful to water and fish supplies just got more dangerous as a new study found traces of the toxin from them in the air near pond water in Massachusetts. Calling someone ‘pond scum’ just took on a whole new dimension.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says his company’s upcoming augmented reality glasses are going to turn regular conversations into Powerpoint presentations with graphs and charts that will pop up while you’re talking to illustrate the point you’re trying to make. If your pickup lines suddenly become pickup Powerpoint presentations, get ready to get turned down even more than you are now.

Max Hodak, co-founder of Neuralink, said in a tweet he thinks we could probably build a real Jurassic Park “if we wanted to,” but it “wouldn’t be genetically authentic dinosaurs” – instead it would have some “super exotic novel species.” Real genetically-modified creatures not seen in nature and a new movie plot – it’s a double-apocalypse score.

Four current crew members on the International Space Station took SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on a 38-minute joyride as they moved it from one docking port on the ISS to another. This sounds like Star Trek going back in time to become part of a Seinfeld parking episode.

Proving no job is safe from AI, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have programmed a four-legged, dog-like robot to act as a seeing-eye dog and safely guide people with a lead across streets, around obstacles and through narrow passages. If this becomes available to the general public, watch for robotic dogs in dog parks to become a high tech date-finder.

A new study by the University of Tokyo and NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting found that handwriting actually increases brain activity more than what occurs when you use a smartphone or tablet. Writing by hand also leaves the other hand free for facepalming.

There’s nothing fishy about new research which found human traits in zebrafish – they lose their memory as they age, they like the same drugs as humans, they remember their friends, they feel pain and can be impatient. Do they also wonder if wearing stipes makes them look fat? (Asking for a friend in a new outfit.)

MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network) has moved its world headquarters back to Cincinnati, Ohio, because that’s where its new executive director lives. That’s only 45 minutes from Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in case field investigators have UFO parts they need analyzed.

Researchers studying narwhal tusks discarded over the last 20 years found an increase in mercury consumption due to pollution and a decrease in nutrition due to fewer healthy Arctic fish to eat. They may have to forget about using those tusks to attract females and start using them as weapons against humans.

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