Link

It sounds like something out of the movie "Johnny Mnemonic," but scientists have successfully been able to "hack" a brain with a device that's easily available on the open market.

Researchers from the University of California and University of Oxford in Geneva figured out a way to pluck sensitive information from a person's head, such as PIN numbers and bank information.

The scientists took an off-the-shelf Emotiv brain-computer interface, a device that costs around $299, which allows users to interact with their computers by thought.

Revising its policy on circumcision for the first time in 13 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics now says that the preventative health benefits of infant circumcision clearly outweigh the risks.

1.  The several rape jokes by Woody.  Iirc these were not uncommon at the time by comedians, and no, they don't seem quite so funny today.

2.  How much Allen's later Annie Hall owes to Play It, both in terms of content and jokes (the latter screenplay was written by WA), but also in directing style.  Play It was directed by Herbert Ross --  and clearly Allen borrowed liberally from the Ross directing playbook in Annie Hall and in most later films.  

Alas, while the Lady Danes were surprisingly competitive in the first set and actually led through most if it, they got caught at the end by the Rainbow Wahine and lost -- and then they got thoroughly dismantled and demolished in the next two sets, and were handily dispatched by Hawaii in about 90 minutes.

They also lost to No. 6 Stanford on Saturday, before giving No. 25 St. Mary's a real run for their money yesterday afternoon before finally falling in five sets. The team flew home last night.

It was actually a good learning experience for the Lady Dane program to play three Top 25 teams this weekend, though. As Coach M.J. Engstrom told our local media, while Albany's won the last eight American East conference titles, if the school wants its volleyball teams to truly competitive on a national level, then this is the level of competition to which they must aspire.

In the case of drug control, international law has more influence on domestic legislation than most Americans realize or, frankly, would want to admit. The federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was enacted in part to meet America's obligations with respect to the scheduling system established in the Single Convention; there is a complex mechanism in place to ensure that the scheduling systems directly correspond, if not exactly mirror, one another.

Many would argue that the international treaties don't legally apply to the states. Technically, it is true that treaties are concerned primarily with federal law, but this does not exempt state and local governments from the requirements of international law. While each state has its own drug laws and controlled substances acts, federal law generally preempts state law when it covers similar subject matter. And since the Supremacy Clause of our nation's Constitution places international treaties on the same legal footing as federal law, both the Conventions and the federal drug laws preempt conflicting state law. So it could be said that while the international treaties do not, as a legal matter, directly apply to the states, as a practical and political matter, they do. The result is that the federal government finds itself obliged to enforce federal law over state law in order to fulfill its international treaty obligations. This might explain, at least in part, why the Obama Administration is unwilling to bend on the issue - it  simply may perceive no choice given the U.S.'s international obligations.