Thursday, 12 November 2026Issue of 8 November
No. 3 · 8 November 2026p. 1 of 12
A man watches a screen where a virtual character waves and says “hello” in a 3D environment
A man watches a screen where a virtual character waves and says “hello” in a 3D environment. Photo: Chang Lab, UCSF

An Avatar Speaks for the Paralyzed

Walter, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurological disease that gradually paralyzes the muscles, had almost entirely lost the ability to communicate. He volunteered to take part in a study led by the neurosurgeon Edward Chang of the University of California, San Francisco, agreeing to have an implant placed in his brain.

The system reads electrical activity on the brain’s surface that arises when a person tries to speak and move. These signals are translated into words and gestures, which are then reproduced by a virtual avatar. The main difficulty facing the scientists was overlapping neural activity, when the brain responds to speech and to gestures in similar ways. The team’s solution was to train the models on simultaneous actions.

In the course of the experiment, the system recognized ten phrases and ten gestures. The avatar was able, for example, to say “hello” and wave its hand. Speech was decoded with an accuracy of 70%, and gestures with an accuracy of 66%. For now the technology remains experimental and still requires a wired connection. Despite the system’s errors, Walter calls the avatar his “digital twin” and recalls how he laughed with joy the first time it accurately conveyed both his thought and his movement.

1,207 Films a Year

American Glenwood Hoskin Jr. watched 1,207 movies in theaters in a year and set a world record
Photo: Sdkb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Glenwood Hoskin Jr., a 60-year-old resident of Pennsylvania, has set a new world record for the most movies seen in a theater in a single year. From April 2024 to April 2025 he attended 1,207 screenings, as reported on the official website of Guinness World Records. Mr. Hoskin went to a theater of the Regal chain in the town of York Haven an average of 3.3 times a day, carefully studying the schedule in advance and drawing up a plan so that he could catch showings from early morning until midnight.

The previous record, 777 films, belonged to another American, Zachariah Swope. Mr. Hoskin had counted on beating it before winter set in, since he does not like driving a car during the cold months. However, the winter in Pennsylvania turned out to be mild, and he was able to continue his trips to the movies.

The former tax inspector said that what he liked best of all were animated films and comedies. Among the movies that made a particularly lasting impression on him, he singled out The Wild Robot and Deadpool & Wolverine. He said that over the whole year he never once came across a single film he disliked entirely.

Tickets cost Mr. Hoskin about $28 a month thanks to a Regal Unlimited subscription, which allows him to attend an unlimited number of screenings. To save money on food, he cooked at home and snacked between showings, and during the breaks he would take walks around the theater. The theater staff, with whom he became friends over the course of the year, helped him pick the shortest films so that he could fit in more screenings. Mr. Hoskin explained that he enjoyed spending time out of the house and setting himself difficult goals.

In Brief

Camels Block a Bridge
On the night of November 3, a herd of camels walked onto the Old Bridge over the Volga in Astrakhan, halting cars and trains. A loading crane cleared them from the tracks, and the Derbent–Moscow train was nearly an hour late. Traffic on the bridge was restored by 4 a.m. The camels likely came from nearby Kalmykia; police have identified their probable owner.
Hurghada Airport Sets a Record
On the last Saturday of October, the Egyptian resort’s airport handled 67,000 passengers — 18% more than the previous record, set a year earlier — and 389 flights. Departing travelers should arrive three and a half hours before takeoff.
Guides Removed From Arrivals Hall
Phuket airport has banned the desks where tour operators’ guides met charter flights from Russia. The ban affects about ten companies that meet 10 to 20 flights a day.

Puzzle of the Week

Schultz’s Cabinet

Schultz and a partner stood an empty cabinet in a warehouse. The floor sloped slightly. “Won’t it fall?” “No,” said Schultz, “its center of gravity is over the base.” An hour later it lay on the floor. The warehouse was locked, the cabinet empty. Lucky smirked: “Science did it.” What happened?

Answer next issue; Puzzle No. 2 answer on page 12.

Quote of the Week

Without your roots, you are incomplete.

Norayr Arakelyan, volunteer from Marseille who moved to Armenia