It is indeed complicated. Putting on and taking off an EEG array properly takes a couple of hours, which has made home applications of EEG for communication with paralyzed patients impractical. As such, surgically-implanted (brain surface, called intracranial) EEG is being explored for these patients, but would never be used without a very severe disability. Another technology, functional near-infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS), is also be explored. This is still at an early stage. The group of Rainer Goebel at Maastricht University (Netherlands), for example, is working on this. This technique uses light to measure changes in blood flow caused by neural activity, so does not require electrical contacts through a conductive gel like EEG does. This would be more practical at home, you could put on a helmet. It is also relatively cheap. The main drawback is that fNIRS can only see activity just under the scalp, so you have to find a brain area to measure from that is in just the right place. This takes some initial setup for each subject, ideally in a hospital using functional MRI. So in short, there is no current technology that can do what you want properly, but fNIRS will probably be the best bet in the medium term. (p.s. I work in brain imaging tech development)

In ten days, a new King of the Netherlands is being crowned near this location. In this case, i think a little surveillance is reasonable. The Netherlands is not a surveillance-heavy country, but this may be just a case of good security practice. That is, watching out for a credible threat, not paranoia.

Indeed. Glutamate is THE MAIN neurotransmitter used by the brain. Drugs targetting glutamate transmission are very common, but because it is so fundamental to brain function, drug effects are very non-specific (wake up, fall asleep, or highly toxic). Medical Daily is clear not a reputable source.

True. This is all a little pointless in a free market zone as we in Holland can just order online from abroad, in the same currency, with nominal delivery fees. Amazon, for example, deliver from Germany for free on orders over 25 euro, which is pretty much any computer component or decent-sized order of blank media.

The title is really inaccurate. I was at this conference and talked to Kamitani about it. He was able to determine whether the dreams we have when entering sleep (not those we have in deep sleep) contained faces, places, or inanimate objects. Significantly above chance levels. It's good work, but it's nothing like reconstructing a photo of what someone was dreaming. Kamitani also tried to explicitly do this, but so far, it's not possible. The linked article makes all of this really clear.

by reducing prices a little. Apple make great products, but their prices are higher than most of their competitors'. Seems like a great way to stay competitive with Google and others, who seem to have lower profit margins per unit sold.

dating from the 18th century in their current form, except the slide projector/powerpoint. Ever since my college days 10 years ago, many students were recording sound in lectures rather than take notes. The better of our lecturers put their slides on our network before class, as students who are copying the slides from the screen are really not listening to the lecturer. Now I teach my own classes, this approach allows me to talk around the slides, in a much more open style, following the message rather than the words of the slides. In a way, this style goes back to the lecture style before the slide projector. This story describes the next step. If we could do the talking part before the class, we could use class time for more interactive activities and group/seminar work. However, I maintain that we need a teacher or a TA working with the groups, as many small groups get lost without a little leadership. Maybe these guys have found a better feedback system. My one problem with the recorded lecture is that students can't stop to ask the speaker questions in lecture. While most students never do this, those who do really help understanding and moving the class forwards.

Got to love that quote at the end. No-one makes music (or not) because they expect financial compensation. This is not true with movies, and perhaps that's why most suck. I would not lend Michael Bay $1 to make a movie, let alone give him $20M