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slant city

MRI tests offer glimpse at brains behind the lies

Two companies plan to market the first lie-detecting devices that use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and say the new tests can spot liars with 90% accuracy.

No Lie MRI plans to begin offering brain-based lie-detector tests in Philadelphia in late July or August, says Joel Huizenga, founder of the San Diego-based start-up. Cephos Corp. of Pepperell, Mass., will offer a similar service later this year using MRI machines at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, says its president, Steven Laken.

Both rely in part on recent research funded by the federal government aimed at producing a foolproof method of detecting deception.

I love technology, or at I do most days, but I’m dubious about lie detectors. This one is already screwed right off the bat with a 90% rate of accuracy. If you have a job and there is some kind of brouhaha and have to take one of these tests and there is a false positive, kiss the house and BMW goodbye. Good liars or at least people that are serial liars don’t have much off a conscience so they are the ones that are least likely to show signs of nervous stress when accused of lying.

Who Will Stand Up for Freedom of the Press?

I love this house (photo at the link), but could never live in it. I’d make a terrible human goldfish, Thoroughly Modern but Downright Neighborly

Not much chance of that. If anything, the house is like an extrovert working the room. The two glass walls of the curtainless living room meet at a corner, without so much as a seam to obstruct the view. Half a dozen times a day, cars stop short so the passengers can admire the house, sometimes flashing a thumbs-up sign.

“I have to keep our bed made at all times,” Ms. Thompson said, because her husband often invites strangers in for a tour.

“It’s like living in a fishbowl,” said Mr. Thompson’s father, Richard, who is also an architect. “David and Jamie are perfectly happy to have that kind of openness. They’re genuinely friendly, and the house reflects that.”

Still, Mr. Thompson anticipated some grumbles from the bungalow purists down the street. He smoothed the way with pre-emptive community outreach, showing the neighbors the plans in advance and posting a rendering at the construction site.

This might be a good solution for high crime areas, everyone in the neighborhood would be a potential witness to a break in. If the perps took hostages the sharp shooters could get an easy shot.