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U.K. researchers have used a computer program to analyze human brain activity and “read” a person’s memory of watching a short film.

In an experiment on how the brain records memories, researchers showed volunteers three short films and asked them to memorize what they saw. In one of the movies, a woman looks through her purse for envelope and then drops it in a mailbox. (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL) Researchers at University College London say their analysis of brain scans can reliably predict which of three short films a person is thinking about.

“We’ve been able to look at brain activity for a specific episodic memory — to look at actual memory traces,” Prof. Eleanor Maguire said in a statement.

The 10 volunteers in the study were each shown three seven-second movies, each showing a different woman in a different everyday situation.

In one of the movies, a woman looks through her purse for envelope and then drops it in a mailbox. In a second film, another actress finishes her cup of coffee and drops the empty cup in a trash can.

The volunteers were then asked to recall each one of the films while they were inside a functional MRI scanner, a medical device that records brain activity by monitoring blood flow inside the brain.

Data from the MRI scans were then fed into a computer, where an algorithm studied the patterns and determined which of the movies the volunteers was thinking about at the time.

“The algorithm was able to predict correctly which of the three films the volunteer was recalling significantly above what would be expected by chance,” said Martin Chadwick, lead author of the study, appearing Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

“This suggests that our memories are recorded in a regular pattern,” he said.

The researchers focused on the medial temporal lobe of the brain, which includes the hippocampus, although areas throughout the brain are known to be active in storing and recalling memories.

“We found that our memories are definitely represented in the hippocampus. Now that we’ve seen where they are, we have an opportunity to understand how memories are stored and how they may change through time,” said Maguire.

The researchers said the study provides more information about how memories are recorded in the brain.

They found that the hippocampus and surrounding areas of the brain were the key areas involved in recording memory. The study determined that the computer program performed best when it was analyzing activity in the hippocampus itself, suggesting it is particularly important in memory.

Author Annabel Lyon has swept through literary award short lists with her novel The Golden Mean. (Random House Canada)

Three debut novels, including the much-lauded The Golden Mean, have scooped nominations for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, one of seven B.C. book prizes.

The Golden Mean, a novel about Aristotle teaching the young Alexander the Great, has swept Canada’s fiction prizes this year, with nods for the Giller, the Governor-General’s Literary Award and the Canadian First Novel Award.

Vancouver writer Annabel Lyon also was winner of the $25,000 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

Two other debut novels — Daniel O’Thunder by Ian Weir and Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison by Cathleen With — are also nominated for B.C.’s fiction prize, along with a debut short story collection, Vanishing and Other Stories by Deborah Willis.

Willis was a GG Award nominee, and Weir is a First Novel Award finalist for his book about a prize-fighting evangelist.

The final contender for the fiction prize is Michael Turner for 8 x 10, a novel about war, immigration, and dislocation in which the characters have no names. Turner, author of the 1999 book, The Pornographer’s Poem, is known for experimenting with unusual writing styles.

Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life, Brian Brett’s affecting exploration of small mixed farming, which gives a scathing critique of modern agribusiness, got multiple nominations, as the West Coast Book Prize Society released its lists on Thursday.

Already winner of the Writers Trust Non-Fiction Prize, Trauma Farm is now a finalist for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award voted on by B.C. booksellers, the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, a prize for contributing to understanding of B.C., and the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize.

Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia, which tells the fascinating stories behind B.C. place names, earned nominations for two awards for author Andrew Scott. It updates a work created in 1909 by Captain John T. Walbran.

Nominees for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize:

• Gillian Jerome, Red Nest ( Nightwood Editions).
• Larissa Lai, Automaton Biographies (Arsenal Pulp Press).
• Miranda Pearson, Harbour (Oolichan Books).
• Fred Wah, is a door (Talonbooks).
• David Zieroth, The Fly in Autumn (Harbour Publishing).

Nominees for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize:

• Ehor Boyanowsky, Savage Gods, Silver Ghosts: In the Wild with Ted Hughes (Douglas & McIntyre).
• Brian Brett, Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life (Greystone Books).
• Lorna Crozier, Small Beneath the Sky: A Prairie Memoir (Greystone Books).
• Charles Demers, Vancouver Special (Arsenal Pulp Press).
• Brian Payton, The Ice Passage: A True Story of Ambition, Disaster, and Endurance in the Arctic Wilderness (Doubleday Canada).

Nominees for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize:

• Neil Boyd, Larry Campbell, Lori Culbert, A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its Future (Greystone Books).
• Brian Brett, Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life (Greystone Books).
• Lorne Dufour, Jacob’s Prayer (Caitlin Press).
• Ian Gill, All That We Say is Ours: Guujaaw and the Reawakening of the Haida Nation (Douglas & McIntyre).
• Andrew Scott, Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia (Harbour Publishing).

Nominees for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize :

• Kristin Butcher, Return to Bone Tree Hill ( Thistledown Press).
• Rachelle Delaney, The Ship of Lost Souls (HarperCollins Canada).
• Sylvia Olsen, Counting on Hope (Sono Nis Press).
• Carrie Mac, The Gryphon Project, Penguin Group (Canada).
• Robin Stevenson, Inferno (Orca Book Publishers).

Nominees for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize:

• Robert Bateman, author/illustrator, Vanishing Habitats (Scholastic Canada).
• Fiona Bayrock, author, Carolyn Conahan, illustrator, Bubble Homes and Fish Farts (Charlesbridge Publishing).
• Jennifer Lloyd, author, Ashley Spires, illustrator, Ella’s Umbrellas (Simply Read Books).
• Kari-Lynn Winters, author, Christina Leist, illustrator, On My Walk (Tradewind Books).
• Frieda Wishinsky, author, Dean Griffiths, illustrator, Maggie Can’t Wait (Fitzhenry & Whiteside).

Nominees for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award, an award for publishers and authors:

• Brian Brett and Greystone Books, Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life.
• Masako Fukawa, Stanley Fukawa, and Harbour Publishing, Spirit of the Nikkei Fleet: BC’s Japanese Canadian Fishermen.
• Dal Richards, Jim Taylor, and Harbour Publishing, One More Time: The Dal Richards Story.
• Andrew Scott and Harbour Publishing, Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia.
• Michael Yahgulanaas and Douglas & McIntyre, Red: A Haida Manga.

Winners will be announced April 7 in Vancouver.

Warner Bros. plans to add another star named Leonardo to its stable of films, but this time it’s not DiCaprio but da Vinci.

The studio is turning the Mona Lisa and Last Supper painter and prolific inventor into an action hero in a film titled Leonardo da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever.

The film version of da Vinci will place him as a member of a secret society.

Da Vinci becomes embroiled in a supernatural mystery that pits him against Biblical demons.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie has been likened to a mix of Indiana Jones meets National Treasure, sending the artist on an adventure involving “secret codes, lost civilizations, hidden fortresses and fallen angels.”

Adrian Askarieh created the story and will be producing the film, now seeking a script writer.

Da Vinci, who died in 1519, was a true Renaissance man who invented many contraptions in addition to being an engineer, musician, sculptor, mathematician, botanist and writer.

It’s the latest in a series of acquisitions by Warner Bros. focusing on legendary figures. Last week, the studio plucked an idea about Marco Polo and it’s also collaborating with director Guy Ritchie on a King Arthur project.

Greg Sutton, shown here, is expected to battle Bouna Coundoul for the No. 1 goalkeeper position with the Red Bulls. (Bill Kostroun/Associated Press)

After being out of work for nine months, Canadian goalkeeper Greg Sutton has landed back on his feet in Major League Soccer.

The New York Red Bulls announced Thursday that they have signed Sutton. Financial details and the length of the contract were not disclosed by the club.

Sutton, a 32-year old native of Hamilton, has not been employed since being released by Toronto FC last June. He recently went on trial with New York and impressed club officials enough with his performances in some pre-season games to earn a contract.

The Red Bulls waived Danny Cepero in February, so Sutton is expected to battle Bouna Coundoul for the No. 1 goalkeeper position in New York.

“He is a very experienced goalkeeper and will compete for a starting role,” Red Bulls general manager Erik Soler said in a statement.

Sutton joined Toronto FC prior to the 2007 season, the club’s first in MLS, and served as the team’s No. 1 goalkeeper before being supplanted by rookie Stefan Frei at the beginning of the 2009 campaign.

Toronto FC selected Frei, a product of the University of California at Berkeley, with the 13th pick in the first round of the 2009 MLS draft. The Swiss-born rookie impressed the Toronto coaching staff in training camp, so much so that he won the starting goalkeeper’s job.

Sutton served as Frei’s backup before being released by the club.

A popular player with teammates and a fan favourite, Sutton made 34 appearances (33 as a starter) and recorded seven shutouts during his time in Toronto.

Shows no bitterness

Although disappointed, Sutton wasn’t sour about being cut.

“I could be bitter about it, but I don’t think that’s going to do any good for me,” Sutton told CBCSports.ca at the time. “I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to go and say things that are going to cause controversy. I’m not going to stoop to that level.”

Sutton kept himself busy during his time away from MLS.

The tall, lanky shot stopper was involved in several youth soccer camps around Ontario, and also found himself back between the posts last July, helping the Canadian national team reach the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The veteran goalkeeper will be surrounded by a few familiar faces in the New York locker-room. Defenders Andy Boyens and Kevin Goldthwaite are former Toronto FC players who are now with the Red Bulls.

New York also recently acquired midfielder Carl Robinson in a trade with Toronto.

New York opens the 2010 MLS regular season on March 27 when it hosts the Chicago Fire.

Const. Douglas Scott, 20, was fatally shot while investigating a drunk-driving complaint in the Nunavut hamlet of Kimmirut on Nov. 5, 2007. (RCMP/Canadian Press)An Iqaluit jury has found Pingoatuk Kolola guilty of murdering an RCMP officer in a remote Nunavut community more than two years ago.

The 11 jurors in the Nunavut Court of Justice trial convicted Kolola, 39, on Thursday of first-degree murder in the Nov. 5, 2007, shooting death of Const. Douglas Scott in the eastern Arctic community of Kimmirut.

Scott, 20, was shot while responding alone to a drunk-driving complaint in the remote Baffin Island hamlet of about 400, located 120 kilometres south of Iqaluit on Baffin Island.

Kolola admitted to firing the rifle shot that killed Scott, but maintained it was an accident. Defence lawyers asked the jury to convict Kolola on the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The jurors, who were selected from Kimmirut and Iqaluit, were seen crying as they walked into the courtroom to deliver their verdict shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET.

Kolola’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday morning. A first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no parole eligiblity for at least 25 years.

The trial began Feb. 22 at the Iqaluit courthouse with 12 jurors, but one member was later excused. The remaining jurors had been sequestered since Monday afternoon.

Mountie in North 6 months

Pingoatuk Kolola, shown being escorted into the Iqaluit courthouse on Monday, has been found guilty of first-degree murder. (CBC)During deliberations, jurors came back to the court three times to request printed transcripts of various witness testimonies.

Scott hailed from Lyn, a community near Brockville, Ont. He had been posted in the North for only six months when he was killed, according to the RCMP.

Members of Scott’s family have been in Iqaluit for the trial but have not commented publicly on the proceedings. They were expected to make a statement after the verdict.

Scott’s death, along with the slaying of an RCMP officer in Hay River, N.W.T., a month earlier, prompted the national police force to review its backup policy for remote locations.

Both Scott and 30-year-old Const. Christopher Worden, who was gunned down Oct. 6, 2007, were killed while responding alone to calls for assistance. Emrah Bulatci, 25, was convicted in November of first-degree murder in connection with Worden’s death.

Shot while seated in vehicle

During Kolola’s trial, court was told that Scott was sitting in his parked RCMP truck when he was shot in the head through the vehicle’s passenger side window.

A distraught and suicidal Kolola had been driving drunk around Kimmirut following a fight he had with his common-law wife, who had threatened to have him evicted from their house.

Kolola took their eight-month-old son, Adam, with him as he drove the local housing association’s truck recklessly around the hamlet until the vehicle became stuck at a local construction site.

Kolola said he had meant to fire a warning shot to scare away the Mountie, who was approaching him in the RCMP truck.

One Kimmirut witness said he saw Kolola holding the baby in one arm and a rifle in the other as he fled the construction site. Other witnesses testified that Kolola later admitted to killing Scott.

A McGill university graduate has captured the prestigious Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners.

The $34,000 prize has been awarded to Elizabeth Paden.

It’s handed out annually to a recent graduate of one of the country’s 10 accredited schools of architecture who demonstrate outstanding potential.

Paden will have the opportunity to visit architectural sites abroad which includes an internship with an international firm.

She plans to study the impact of large-scale public buildings in a geo-political sense.

Three regions Paden will be visiting are:

• The suburbs of Paris.
• The boundary between Israel and the West Bank.
• The border regions between Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Her internship will be with the 0047 company in Oslo, Norway, where she will develop a public exhibition to be showcased in Canada.

A native of Sudbury who now lives in Toronto, Paden worked closely with the Mohawk First Nations in the community of Kahnawake for her master’s thesis to examine how land claim disputes are negotiated and to look at different solutions.

In 2009, Paden was awarded the Student Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the American Institute of Architects Henry Adams Medal, and the A.F. Dunlop Traveling Scholarship, which will fund a research trip to Nunavut in August 2010.

“If a guy gets hurt like that with a shot to the head, there’s got to be [some discipline],” says Penguins forward Bill Guerin. (Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bill Guerin says the NHL must outlaw hits to the head.

That includes the kind of hit levelled by Guerin’s teammate, Matt Cooke, on the Boston Bruins’ Marc Savard.

Cooke knocked Savard out of the lineup for an indefinite period with a Grade 2 concussion sustained during a shoulder-to-head hit on Sunday, but wasn’t suspended.

NHL enforcement chief Colin Campbell said precedent was set when the Flyers’ Mike Richards wasn’t suspended for a similar hit on Florida’s David Booth this season.

‘Guys don’t mean to hurt each other, but they do. You got to pay a price for that.’— Penguins forward Bill Guerin on penalizing hits to the head

NHL general managers recommended during their meeting Wednesday that a blind-side hit to the head — or the kind Cooke inflicted on Savard — should not be permitted.

Guerin expected Cooke to be suspended.

“If a guy gets hurt like that with a shot to the head, there’s got to be something,” Guerin said. “Actions happen.

“Guys don’t mean to hurt each other, but they do. You got to pay a price for that.”

Guerin said players must know they can play the game with protection against hits to the head, especially those that a player can’t see coming.

“We’re all under the same umbrella, whether the guy’s on my team and I’m sitting right next to him or he’s playing in California,” Guerin said. “It doesn’t matter. We’re all playing in the same league.

“We all want the same safety. We all want to be looked after the same way. I understand [Cooke] is on my team but, hey, he’s in a tough spot.”

The Penguins play the Bruins for the fourth and final time this season March 18 in Boston.

Cooke has been suspended previously for hard hits.

He sat two games this season for a hit to the head of Rangers centre Artem Anisimov. He also drew a two-game suspension for hitting then Carolina forward Scott Walker in the head Jan. 20, 2009.

Cooke was not suspended for a knee-to-knee hit on Carolina’s Erik Cole that occurred during last season’s Eastern Conference final.

Nahlah Ayed, pictured here reporting from Israel last year, says a reporter’s first duty is to get the story, not to be an aid worker. (CBC)Nahlah Ayed and Mellissa Fung, two CBC journalists who have reported extensively from abroad, say they are sometimes treated as a “third sex” in some countries.

“People often ask me, ‘In the Middle East, you must have trouble,’” said Ayed, a Montreal-based national reporter who has also reported from Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently, Haiti.

“It’s funny. In a way you are treated as a third sex. You are a foreigner and you are a woman and yet, [the men] treat you differently than if you were a woman from their community.”

Fung, who was abducted while reporting in Afghanistan in 2008, agrees.

“You are able to move more freely than the local women,” said Fung, now a national reporter based in Toronto. “I just heard a story in Kabul about local women journalists being threatened … . They didn’t have the security or as many resources as we do. It’s more dangerous for them.”

Ayed and Fung are participating in a panel Thursday night at the CBC in Toronto on what it’s like for female journalists working in danger zones. The panel includes Alison Smith, Connie Watson and Laurie Graham.

Only woman reporter in Afghanistan

Ayed and Fung both say that while plenty of women work as foreign correspondents, it can still be a lonely task.Mellissa Fung, shown here reporting from Beijing in 2008, was abducted while on assignment in Afghanistan in October of that year. She was released after 28 days. (CBC)

“Early in the Canadian deployment in Afghanistan, I spent three months there,” Ayed recalled. “I felt, and I know, there were times when I was the only woman reporter there.”

Fung recalls spending nights on a cot in the desert in Afghanistan surrounded by male soldiers.

The two women spoke to CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi on Q about some of the hardships of reporting from conflict zones.

“You see a two-minute story on TV but what you don’t know is that it took 24 hours to get to that place,” Fung said.

The job is as “unglamourous as you can possibly imagine,” Ayed said. “You’re eating out of cans, washing your own socks. We’re doing everything for ourselves.”

A reporter first

Because of the physical strain, a foreign correspondent also has to be physically fit, the reporters said.

“I remember hiking for miles in a flak jacket and carrying a heavy pack,” Fung said.

‘If you feel compelled to help, you can … but don’t put it in front of the camera.’— Mellissa Fung, CBC reporter

“You have to be physically fit when you’re out with the military.”

The two spoke of challenges beyond the physical hardships — including having to deal with their own humanity and a desire to help those in need.

“I have grappled with it, ” Ayed said. “[But] we have a very clear job. Our job is to convey information about what’s going on. We are not aid workers.

Fung says a reporter’s primary job is just that — to report.

“If you feel compelled to help, you can … but don’t put it in front of the camera.”

Both journalists say they’ve met people in their line of work they still keep in touch with and are concerned about.

“When you go out there, you see how people cope,” Ayed said. “The resilience of the people … I can do stories like that until the last day of my life. I find it so compelling.”

Conan O’Brien, shown June 1, 2009, as the host of The Tonight Show, will launch a 33-city comedy tour on April 12. His first Canadian stop is Vancouver on April 13. (Paul Drinkwater/NBC/Associated Press)

Conan O’Brien is following up his disappearing act on network TV with a standup tour that will take him to 33 cities, including three in Canada.

O’Brien announced Thursday that he’ll begin the tour April 12.

The Canadian stops are Vancouver on April 13 at the Orpheum Theatre; a casino in Enoch, Alta., on April 17; and Massey Hall in Toronto on May 22.

O’Brien moved from his late-night slot to host The Tonight Show in June 2009 but lost the gig in January when NBC decided it wanted Jay Leno to take over again as host.

O’Brien turned down an offer to host a half-hour show and took a $45-million US buyout package from the network. Although he had mixed reviews as The Tonight Show host, he attracted widespread sympathy and unprecedented publicity during his dispute with NBC.

He was expected to take a late-night slot with another network, but so far, no deal has been announced.

Instead, he will embark on the Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour, which will include sidekick Andy Richter and possibly Max Weinberg.

O’Brien promises it will be “a night of music, comedy, hugging and the occasional awkward silence.”

Ticket prices for the Canadian shows range upwards from $58.

The tour includes shows at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., and New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

With files from The Associated Press

Members of Parliament grilled Transport Canada officials Thursday about what they knew about safety problems with Toyota vehicles — and when they knew it.

But many MPs were not satisfied with the responses, saying they want to put the spotlight on Toyota officials themselves next week.

Transport Canada has received 17 complaints about Toyota cars involving a number of issues over the past three years. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)

The transport committee meeting was told Transport Canada had received a total of 17 complaints about Toyota cars involving a number of issues in the past three years, but none involving sticky pedals until Toyota informed the department it had received five.

Liberal critic Joe Volpe said he was angered by the lack of transparency on the part of Toyota, and lack of response from the department and its minister, John Baird.

“The minister is not asking, the department is not asking and Toyota is not offering,” he said. “Everybody else in the world is looking at this and we’re not? What, you can’t ask for the information?”

Transport officials told the MPs there has as yet been no confirmed cases of fatalities in Canada related to Toyota acceleration problems.