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I used to think there was nothing new under the sun about autism. But today I read that a new screening method may improve the way the disease is diagnosed and tracked in children after age 3.  And it's very unique. According to newswise.com, the new method involves tracking a person’s random movements in real time "with a sophisticated computer program that produces 240 images a second and detects systematic signatures unique to each person." How it differs from the traditional assessment for diagnosing autism is that it now removes the primarily subjective opinions of "a person’s social interaction, deficits in communication, and repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests." In other words, there is now an objective way to test for, and diagnose, autism, providing an earlier, diagnosis by factoring in the importance of changes in movements and movement sensing.  This enables professionals to identify "inherent capabilities in each child,"...

Don't know about you but I'm getting pretty sick of all the weight loss ads tracking me wherever I go on the Web. I know it's probably because I have a Weight Watchers account but enough already. And now when I go to a store, according to smartplanet.com, I can look forward to "in-store system(s) that sp(y) on our eye movements and immediately flash advertisements at us on nearby screens, corresponding to what we’ve just been looking at, the BBC reports ." I may never go shopping again. If that isn't spooky enough, Rose Eveleth at the same site reports that researchers are currently working on algorithms that factor in "things like the floor plan of the area and a behavioral model that predicts where people are likely to move."  And where are these eyes?  In mannequins. Fortunately, both apps are still about five years away.  But with cameras everywhere, it's only a matter of time before department stores and Web sites know when you sleep...