[meteorite-list] Lunar/Meteorite Samples Stolen from Car in Virginia

[Darren Garrison]

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:15:15 +0100, "Axel Emmermann" <axel.emmermann at pandora.be> wrote:

>plug him into the polygraph (BTW: is that Greek for "multiwriter"? ;-))))
>

Little known fact-- before the modern electronic polygraph, police often used specially-traied
parrots who were sensitive to human emotions during interregations, and when those birds (which are
very good at sensing differences in vocal tones, hence their ability to learn to talk) sensed a
change in the questioned person's tone, they were trained to make a mark on a piece of paper with a
piece of charcoal that they held in their beaks.  The proper term was "Avian Stress Sensor" but
somewhere along the way, the slang term "polygraph" was coined-- "Polly" being a common name for
parrots, and "graph" being short for graphite.