Buffalo Bills are 3-0 for first time since 92′

Marshawn Lynch

Not since Buffalo’s super bowl teams of the mid 90’s have the Bills been out to a 3-0 start and off to what seems to be a promising season. The team of Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith, went to four straight super bowls in the 90’s. Buffalo fans everywhere have to be excited for what this season may bring.

Buffalo has started strong, beating Seattle, Jacksonville and Oakland to start the 2008 season. With young players such as quaterback Trent Edwards, running back Marshawn Lynch and reciever Lee Evans running the offense, the Bills have been looking good. The defense has been doing it’s fair share as well, keeping their opponents in check and giving the offense plenty of opportunities.

Now that Buffalo has taken the number one spot in the AFC East, you have to wonder if they can keep that spot. Why not? Miami just beat the hell out of the Patriots, who are without Tom Brady for the season. The Jets are struggling to keep their momentum going after a close game against Miami in week one. And Miami themselves have just gotten win number one of the season, which as we may remember, was their total wins from last year.

Buffalo Bills cheerleaders

I’m a Buffalo fan and I’ve seen numerous seasons of the Bills just missing the playoffs or having a terrible season. This year has a different feel to it. They are off to a good start and are playing with confidence. They beat a tough Jacksonville team, who just beat the 2007 superbowl champion Colts last week. Trent Edwards plays with poise and confidence and has already had four fourth quater comebacks in his short career.

I’m excited to see what comes next for the Bills. They take on the 0-3 St. Louis Rams this Sunday, which seems like it could be a game that Buffalo can win if they keep playing like they have been. Lets hope that not only the 3-0 start since 92′ has come back to Buffalo, but also the greatness that was the Bills during the mid-90’s.   

John Fallon Field Gets a Facelift

John Fallon Field completed in 2005

John Fallon Field, home of the Great Danes lacrosse team, has been undergoing phase two of its three phase construction plan to build a grandstand which will give spectators and athletes a renewed excitement.

A new grandstand has been under construction at John Fallon Field which will seat 2,000 spectators and feature a press box, ticket booths, restrooms and concession stand. As of now the $2 million project, which was started in December of 2007, will be ready by January 2009. “Just in time for our lacrosse teams home opener in February,” Rick Coe, Deputy Athletic Director said.

The project, $7 million in total, will create a better atmosphere for spectators and athletes, Coe said. “We didn’t have any permanent seating and we’ve had a few national games there and ESPN has been there and we thought given the national scope of our team, we wanted a permanent grandstand.”

Phase one of the project was to build the turf fields themselves, as well as the lights. The grandstand, press box and utilities foundations are all part of the second phase. The concession stand and restrooms, which will go underneath the grandstand, and seating for the field hockey field are all part of the third phase, which is still awaiting a budget approval.

Coe is excited that this project continues to keep moving forward, although not without its complications. “We are a little behind schedule as of right now, but construction usually is,” Coe said. He says that the utilities take the longest to install.

Set backs aside, the new grandstand should be a welcoming sight for spectators who had to watch from the grass or from outside the field in previous years. Fans will get to enjoy a new perspective come February, when the Great Danes host their home openers. “I think the team is certainly excited by seeing (the grandstand) out there,” Coe said. “It’s not just a venue for us, it’s for the whole capital region.”

India Implements Brain Scans in Courts

Brain scans have been under heavy research by numerous countries looking for advanced techniques for lie detection. In June, a woman in India was found guilty of murder by use of a brain scan that said she held “experiential knowledge about the crime that only the killer could possess,” a report from the New York Times said. 

India has become the first country to convict someone of a crime relying on evidence from this controversial machine: a brain scanner that produces images of the human mind in action and is said to reveal signs that a suspect remembers details of the crime in question.

For years similar types of techniques have been used to try and peer into the brains of humans to try and decipher deception in the mind. Since September 11th, the United States has been funding and researching brain-based lie detection, but most countries still don’t know enough to have it used in a courtroom as evidence.

The technologies have been showing promise, but are overall still unusable in most court systems. The exception, of course, is in India, where in recent years judges have begun to admit brain scans. But it was only in June, in a murder case in Pune, in Maharashtra State, that a judge explicitly cited a scan as proof that the suspect held specific knowledge of the crime, sentencing her to life in prison.

The device used in the June murder trial was created by neuroscientist Champadi Raman Mukundan and is called a Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test or BEOS, according to a report from Slashdot.   

The United States, which has been at the forefront of research for brain scan lie detection, has mixed feelings about India’s use in court. My own opinion is that this technology is truely incredible if it does indeed work. However, I agree with scientists in certain reports that say it isn’t reliable enough to be used in court, much less on a murder case where the sentence is life in prison.

I suppose that’s the difference between the United States and India. This topic could be discussed and argued all day, but for now, the United States is still researching and India has used it to sentence a woman to life in prison.

You have to wonder whether or not this technique is better than truth drugs, which have been used over the years. How reliable should a brain scan have to be to sentence someone? Does that person have a right to privacy over their memories? Could this bring an end to lying as we know it?