Technology & science

Looking for employees - and volunteers?

Elon Musk — the SpaceX founder, Tesla CEO, and, most recently, Twitter owner — hosted a flashy event on Wednesday night for yet another one of his companies: Neuralink, the startup proposing implants that connect your brain to a computer.

Neuralink said it was able to allow monkeys to play the video game Pong using only their brain implants, though something similar had already been accomplished in a human with a brain implant more than a decade prior. Musk touted footage of the monkey playing Pong again on Wednesday.

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Musk noted during the “show and tell” event that the primary goal of the evening was to recruit talent to Neuralink.

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The company has acknowledged that a monkey had died during the testing process.

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Before Neuralink’s brain implants are mass produced and hit the broader market, they’ll need regulatory approval.

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Musk said Wednesday that Neuraink has submitted “most” of its paperwork to the FDA and could begin testing on humans within six months.

  CNN

The startup that Elon Musk founded to implant computer chips in people’s brains has admitted that it killed eight monkeys during research experiments.

The revelation comes in response to a legal complaint from a group that opposes medical testing on animals.

  Fortune

Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink is being accused of subjecting monkey test subjects to “extreme suffering” by a well-regarded animal rights group. All told, Neuralink’s early experiments have utilized 23 monkeys — and only 8 of them have survived the experience.

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The stories told in the PCRM’s report — which were obtained through California’s public records — are enough to make anyone sick.

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One example quoted by the Post describes that one monkey was found missing some of its fingers and toes. The report says this may have been the result of “self-mutilation or some other unspecified form of trauma.” That monkey was eventually killed during a “terminal procedure.”

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“Pretty much every single monkey that had implants put in their head suffered from pretty debilitating health effects,” said Jeremy Beckham, research advocacy director at the PCRM. “They were, frankly, maiming and killing the animals.”

  Inverse

Elon Musk said on Wednesday he expects a wireless brain chip developed by his company Neuralink to begin human clinical trials in six months, after the company missed earlier timelines set by him.

[...]

The event was originally planned for Oct. 31 but Musk postponed it just days before without giving a reason.

  Reuters

More dead monkeys?

So...15 dead monkeys. Eight live ones. And no information on the quality of life for those eight.  

After experiments on 23 monkeys - and the lion's share of those failures - Musk wants to start human experiments.  I expect he can get volunteers on Twitter.

And, while we're cautioning folks, perhaps anyone thinking about working at Neuralink should first talk to the ranks fired, voluntarily resigned, and the skeleton crew remaining at Twitter about having Musk as a boss.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Are we headed for another "silent spring"?

Read about it here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Cleaning up Trump's mess

The Interior Department will suspend several oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Tuesday, according to three individuals briefed on the decision, overturning one of Donald Trump’s most significant environmental acts during his last days in office.

The move, which could spark a major legal battle, aims to unwind nearly a dozen leases in the heart of a pristine expanse in Alaska that Republicans and Democrats have fought over for four decades. The Trump administration auctioned off the right to drill in the refuge’s coastal plain — home to hundreds of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl as well as the Southern Beaufort Sea’s remaining polar bears —just two weeks before President Biden was inaugurated.

  WaPo

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Mother nature is desperate to rid herself of humans

In the past 20 years, new coronaviruses have emerged from animals with remarkable regularity. In 2002, SARS-CoV jumped from civets into people. Ten years later, MERS emerged from camels. Then in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 began to spread around the world.

For many scientists, this pattern points to a disturbing trend: Coronavirus outbreaks aren't rare events and will likely occur every decade or so.

Now, scientists are reporting that they have discovered what may be the latest coronavirus to jump from animals into people. And it comes from a surprising source: dogs.

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The patients had what looked like regular pneumonia. But in eight out of 301 samples tested, or 2.7%, Xui and Gray found that the patients' upper respiratory tracts were infected with a new canine coronavirus, i.e., a dog virus.

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"I thought, 'There's something wrong,' " says virologist Anastasia Vlasova. "Canine coronaviruses were not thought to be transmitted to people. It's never been reported before."

  NPR

Man's best friend no longer.

The Commonwealth of Virginia has transformed in the last decade

One more item in the growing list of liberal reforms...

Under current law, anyone convicted of a felony in Virginia loses their civil rights, including the right to vote, serve on a jury, run for office, become a public notary, and carry a firearm. The state constitution gives the governor sole discretion to restore civil rights, with the exception of firearms rights.

[...]

Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam announced an executive action on Tuesday that allows tens of thousands of felons to recover their voting and other civil rights upon release from prison.

The move applies immediately to an estimated 69,000 Virginians who have completed their sentences, including ex-convicts who remain on supervision. And it comes as the state prepares for gubernatorial and legislative elections on June 8.

"Too many of our laws were written during a time of open racism and discrimination, and they still bear the traces of inequity," said Northam said in a statement.

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Northam's office touted the action as the latest bipartisan move to restore civil rights over the last decade. That includes streamlining the application and eliminating the waiting period and the prerequisite that court costs and fees be paid prior to having one's rights restored.

  NPR

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Also...

Good.  The other states are California (first, as usual, but not until 2018), Nevada and Illinois.

Incredible

If this is supposed to be exciting, I have no hope for humankind.  Look at that picture.  What kind of person finds locking a beautiful animal in a jail cell to give birth something to be joyful about?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Burn it all down

The Trump administration reportedly plans to end an Obama-era rule banning the use of controversial hunting methods in Alaska's national parks.

According to a Monday report by The Washington Post, the rule change is set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday and would go into effect 30 days later. The rule would end a five-year ban on baiting hibernating bears from dens with doughnuts and on using artificial light in wolf dens during efforts to kill mothers and pups.

The change would also end bans on shooting swimming caribou from boats and hunting animals from airplanes and snowmobiles.

  The Hill

Disgusting. The Trump brats want to go hunting, I suppose.

Also...

Meatpacking plants in the U.S. remain hot spots for coronavirus outbreaks in the wake of President Trump’s order declaring them essential businesses that must remain open.

Although meat production has rebounded since the order, the number of cases tied to such facilities has since increased by more than 100 percent to 20,400 infections across 216 plants in 33 states.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Uh-oh

So, your pets are probably not safe either.

In a suspected human to animal transmission, a tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for COVID-19, the coronavirus disease.

Nadia, a four-year-old female tiger at the zoo tested positive, and the diagnosis was confirmed by the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory, based in Ames, Iowa. The Wildlife Conservation Society said that Nadia, three other tigers, and three African lions have developed dry coughs and decreased appetite, but are expected to recover. None of the zoo's other big cats, including tigers in another area of the zoo, have shown any coronavirus symptoms.

The cats were infected by a caretaker who had COVID-19 but was asymptomatic, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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There is no evidence that animals can spread COVID-19 to people, the USDA said in a statement, but the CDC is recommending that people with the virus avoid contact with pets and other animals.

  Business Insider

Yeah, I doubt it's a one-way only transmissible thing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

People suck

"Dream hunt"

A week-long “dream hunt” with the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr is being auctioned at an annual trophy hunting convention in Reno, Nevada alongside expeditions to shoot elephants, bears and giraffes.

The four-day event organized by Safari Club International (SCI) and advertised as a “hunters’ heaven”, will culminate on Saturday with an auction for a week-long Sitka black-tailed deer hunt in Alaska with Trump Jr, his son and a guide. At the time of writing, bidding for the yacht-based expedition stands at $10,000 (£7,685).

Other prizes include the chance to shoot an elephant on a 14-day trip in Namibia, an all-inclusive hunt package to Zimbabwe to kill buffalo, giraffe and wildebeest, and a 10-day crocodile hunting expedition in South Africa. The proceeds from the auction, which campaigners say could exceed $5m, will fund SCI’s “hunter advocacy and wildlife conservation efforts”, according to the organization.

  Guardian

Wildlife "conservation".

Trophy hunting = toxic masculinity.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Australia is burning

New federal law aims to prevent animal cruelty

Fair point, Susan.

I'm all for preventing cruelty to animals, and so I have another question:  will beef, pork, and chicken-rearing factory farms and processing plants have to shut down?

No, of course not.  Only "certain acts" of cruelty are penalized.

The bipartisan bill, Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, criminalizes certain acts of animal cruelty.

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The bill, introduced in the House by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., is an expansion on the 2010 Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act, which made the creation and distribution of "animal crushing" videos illegal.

  ABC

That was a thing?  Jesus, people don't deserve to live.

Are state laws not good enough to prosecute?

At least lawyers will be kept employed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Animal protection

Now do immigrants.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump administration removes obstacles to sons' trophy hunting elephants

Exactly what I predicted back in November.

The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced last week that it will now consider all permits for importing elephant trophies from African nations on a “case-by-case basis," breaking from President Trump's earlier promises to maintain an Obama-era ban on the practice.

In a formal memorandum issued on Thursday, FWS said it will withdraw its 2017 Endangered Species Act (ESA) findings for trophies of African elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia, “effective immediately.”

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The service also announced it is withdrawing a number of previous ESA findings, which date back to 1995, related to trophies of African elephants, bontebok and lions from multiple African countries.

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FWS said it will still consider the information included in the ESA findings, as well as science-based risk assessments of the species’ vulnerability, when evaluating each permit request.

  The Hill

And who the person is requesting the permit and how much money they've put into whose pockets.

At the time, a FWS spokesperson said the reversal “will enhance the survival of the species in the wild.”

By killing some.

Following the fall announcement to overturn the ban, the Trump administration faced immense backlash, which played a role in leading the president to denounce elephant hunting and promise to re-establish the ban.

And then let everybody forget about it before his administration actually did anything.

FWS and the Interior Department remained tight-lipped as to the status of the ban. Numerous requests for information to FWS from The Hill over several months were referred to Interior and left unanswered.

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Nine days before FWS added the reversal to the Federal Register, the Interior Department announced that it was establishing an International Wildlife Conservation Council to "advise the Secretary of the Interior on the benefits that international recreational hunting has on foreign wildlife and habitat conservation."

Killing is good for elephants. They're practically swarming the African plains, carrying their terrible elephant diseases, going crazy and killing everything in sight. I'm sure that's what's happening.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.

Making America Great Again

A rising Republican star—Yes, there still are some of those—named Nathan Dahm, who is running to replace the equally wingy wingnut Jim Bridenstine in the [Oklahoma] Congress, has filed Senate Bill 1457. What does this bill do? I am glad you asked. It makes all wildlife in Oklahoma “the property of Almighty God.” Things are not getting better, people.

  Charlie Pierce

Does God get paid when someone kills an animal in the wild?  Or does the Oklahoma legislature, as the entity charged with management, get that?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Must have gotten some serious blowback

When I first started reading, I thought he was going to be talking about football players again. They'll probably wait a while and try to sneak it in silently.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE  3/6:

Looks like I was right.

Nooooooooooooooo!

The Trump administration plans to allow hunters to import trophies of elephants they killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the United States, reversing a ban put in place by the Obama administration in 2014, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official confirmed to ABC News today.

Even though elephants are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, a provision in the act allows the government to give permits to import these trophies if there is evidence that the hunting actually benefits conservation for that species.

  ABC

What's the evidence? The optics on this move are particularly bad.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11/18: Must have gotten some serious blowback.

FURTHER UPDATE 3/6:  They waited until the blowback died down; now they're going through with it.

Picking Up the Pieces from the Trump Administration

Take That

A Chicago politician who accused ‘aggressive squirrels’ of causing refuse chaos in the city suffered serious injuries after one of the furry rodents knocked him off his bike.

  RT