The next new craze: Brain Pong?

The power of the average Cornell brain is slightly greater than the power of the average brain.

Not every Cornell brain is useful, though. Some might offer those of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Andy Bernard of "The Office" as among the more dispensable examples. Still, you know that Cornell minds often offer a taste of the next world, rather than this.

So play along with me for a moment as we observe together two Cornell students playing Brain Pong.

This is exactly what it sounds like: the famous and much-underrated game Pong powered by the force of brain waves.

I am grateful to Engadget for discovering this phenomenon.

The two electrical engineering students in question have names of folks who should be in the Yankees bullpen: Chuck Moyes and Mengxiang Jiang. Instead, they dedicated themselves to donning baseball caps adorned with EEG-scanning electrodes.

With a serendipitous connection to a computer, these two fine men allowed their Mu's and Alpha's to propel that little puck thingy backwards and forwards until victory was achieved.

Like any other contact sport, Brain Pong seems to rely on a mixture of relaxation and concentration. Indeed, as one of the players (Moyes, I believe) says during the video, it is all about focusing or relaxing on command.

Of course, this means that intimidation plays a huge role. Make your opponent nervous, and his brain will jigger his player in entirely skittish directions.

Another thing that might put some off is that excessive head-twitching seems to hurt one's game. Yes, just like golf.

For myself, in viewing this video, I see little difference between Brain Pong and Drunk Pong. Perhaps, though, this is merely evidence of the fact that many Cornell brains are, deep inside, drunk on their sheer excellence.