PHILOSOPHY: Is it moral to torture intelligent animals for food?

Friday, March 24, 2023

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64814781?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

World’s first octopus farm proposals alarm scientists
Published << 2023-03Mar-16>>
By Claire Marshall
BBC Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent

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A plan to build the world’s first octopus farm has raised deep concerns among scientists over the welfare of the famously intelligent creatures.

The farm in Spain’s Canary Islands would raise about a million octopuses annually for food, according to confidential documents seen by the BBC.

They have never been intensively farmed and some scientists call the proposed icy water slaughtering method “cruel.”

*** and ***

Prof. Peter Tse, a cognitive neuroscientist at Dartmouth University, told the BBC that “to kill them with ice would be a slow death … it would be very cruel and should not be allowed.”

Adding that they were “as intelligent as cats” he suggested that a more humane way would be to kill them as many fishermen do, by clubbing them over the head.

*** end quote ***

Having seen how intelligent these animals are and how unique they are making them “food” is hard to justify.  Torturing them is just unacceptable.

Sigh!

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RANT: No vegetative state for me

Thursday, March 23, 2023

What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

DNR

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INNOVATION: Alweays beable to describe your exact location — what3words app

Thursday, March 23, 2023
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpUtCBpjtcW/?utm_campaign=w3w.Community%20biweekly%20newsletters
 
“This app saved my life” says rescued paddleboarder Rebekah She was struggling to describe her location somewhere off the coast of Virginia Beach when she remembered she had the what3words app.”
 
​FYI FWIW YMMV​
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INNOVATION: Another significat contribution to the public domain

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-pollution-anywhere-0316?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Low-cost device can measure air pollution anywhere

  • Open-source tool from MIT’s Senseable City Lab lets people check air quality, cheaply.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
Publication Date: March 16, 2023 

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Air pollution is a major public health problem: The World Health Organization has estimated that it leads to over 4 million premature deaths worldwide annually. Still, it is not always extensively measured. But now an MIT research team is rolling out an open-source version of a low-cost, mobile pollution detector that could enable people to track air quality more widely.

The detector, called Flatburn, can be made by 3D printing or by ordering inexpensive parts. The researchers have now tested and calibrated it in relation to existing state-of-the-art machines, and are publicly releasing all the information about it — how to build it, use it, and interpret the data.

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“We” should have an award for people who make a discovery and make it free to use because of its great benefit.

It should be named for Frederick Banting (note below) for insulin or Volvo for the three point seat belt.

Maybe Volvo would sponsor it.

I’d nominate these folks from MIT for this invention and releasing it to the public domain.

# – # – # – # – # 

Note: When inventor Frederick Banting discovered insulin in 1923, he refused to put his name on the patent. He felt it was unethical for a doctor to profit from a discovery that would save lives. Banting’s co-inventors, James Collip and Charles Best, sold the insulin patent to the University of Toronto for a mere $1.

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SECURITY: Passkeys don’t solve every security problem

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

https://www.reviewgeek.com/148254/why-you-should-start-using-passkeys/

Why You Should Start Using Passkeys
Danny Chadwick
Mar 16, 2023, 2:55 pm EDT | 5 min read

*** begin quote ***

Passwords have been our first line of defense against hackers since the 1960s. But, now they’re showing their age and limitations in the 21st-century data wars. Not even password managers are safe. Passkeys are now here to help. Here’s why you should switch and enjoy a more secure digital future.

*** end quote ***

Passkeys solve the “password” problem for only one use case.

Use cases are programmer speak for how the application interacts with the User.

If you’re the average plain vanilla User, then they are fine. 

But, if you access the application from different hardware, then you can’t use a passkey.  

Apple shares the passkeys in its walled garden, so that is another use case addressed.

I’m not sure how Google / Android addresses the use case of a different platform usage.

Having password managers storing the passkey may solve the problem but defeat the concept.

IMHO

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INSPIRATIONAL: What the police od right is seldom recognized

Monday, March 20, 2023

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11867551/Officers-relief-battled-save-boy-3-trapped-seat-underwater.html

Best cry I’ve ever heard’: Cops describe relief after saving unconscious boy, 3, trapped in his car seat, completely submerged – and reviving him with CPR

  •     Boy was trapped in seat after car had plunged into canal following a car crash 
  •     Rescuing officer had to pull car seat ‘as hard as he could’ to break child free
  •     Another officer gave the boy CPR and kept telling him ‘you’re going to be fine’

By Miriam Kuepper
Published: 08:54 EDT, 16 March 2023 | Updated: 09:01 EDT, 16 March 2023

*** begin quote ***

Officers have described the utter relief after they battled to save an unconscious three-year-old boy who was trapped in his car seat and completely submerged by water for three minutes before he was rescued and revived with CPR by the police.

The child was trapped in his seat after the car had plunged into a canal following a car crash, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department in Florida, which was called to the rescue.

Despite ‘heroic efforts’, the driver was unable to get the boy out of the car, even after good Samaritans saw the accident and tried to help.

*** end quote ***

Not sure if I would have the huevos muchos grande to dive into a murky Florida canal.  I’d be thinking aligator.  But evidently this man proved his courage and saved a life.  “Whoever Saves a Life Saves the World” is well know in both Jewish and Islamic writings. 

“Men are expendable; women and children are not. A tribe or a nation can lose a high percentage of its men and still pick up the pieces and go on … as long as the women and children are saved. But if you fail to save the women and children, you’ve had it, you’re done, you’re through! You join Tyrannosaurus Rex, one more breed that bilged its final test.”  — The Pragmatics of Patriotism (1973) from Heinlein’s address at the U.S. Naval Academy (5 April 1973)

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The DoJ protected the Bidens while prosecuting DJT45

Sunday, March 19, 2023

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/03/15/feds_foreign-agent_double_standard_protective_of_bidens_even_as_they_bore_down_on_trumpworld_885544.html?mc_cid=29f3a052a4

Feds’ Foreign-Corruption Double Standard: They Protected Bidens Even as They Bore Down on Trumpworld
By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations|March 15, 2023

  • Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, convicted in a 2018 corruption case. At trial, U.S. prosecutors redacted Hunter Biden’s name from court exhibits and did not explore evidence of his lucrative dealings with the powerful Chinese figure. 

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At the same time that Department of Justice officials were using spying and corruption statutes to aggressively pursue Donald Trump’s allies based on what turned out to be rumor and innuendo, they declined to use those same laws to investigate evidence of wrongdoing involving Biden family members and one of their corrupt Chinese business partners, DOJ documents and federal court records reveal.  

In 2016-2017, the evidence shows, the FBI raided the offices and intercepted the communications of Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, a Chinese national suspected of espionage even as he was negotiating business deals with former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James.  

DOJ later used information obtained from the searches and wiretaps – which included conversations with the current President’s son and brother – to convict Ho of bribery and money laundering, as part of a separate corruption case involving United Nations officials. But it declined to tap into its trove of evidence – including “over 100,000 emails” – to explore the connections between Ho and the Bidens, who received millions of dollars from Ho and a Chinese intelligence front and discussed sharing office space.

*** end quote ***

Sorry this is NOT “equal justice under the law”.  “We, The Sheeple” must set things right.  The FBI and other TLAs (Three letter agencies) must be terminated completely.  Those responsible must be procsecurted.  “Just following orders” is NEVER a defense.

Argh!

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DISCOURAGING: What’s messed up and what’s not

Saturday, March 18, 2023
https://www.survivalmonkey.com/threads/it-is-all-falling-apart.70122/
 
​*** begin quote ***
 
Pretty sure everyone with even a couple of functional brain cells can see that everything is falling apart. Whether by design or coincidence can be debated, personally I believe it is a mix of by design and unintended consequences thrown in for good measure. Inflation, Crime, Random acts of violence, a failed public education system, supply chain malfunctions, work force participation, illegal immigration, food shortages, sheer Government incompetence, Polarization and Deep Divisions, A general mix of fear and hostility out in society. The list just keeps going to the point that the list of things NOT wrong and messed up is a lot shorter than the list of things that ARE wrong and messed up.
 
*** end quote ***​
 
I’d point out the SVB depositors bailout as a “national disaster”.
 
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PRODUCTIVITY: Sorry, no “bonuses” for failing corporations at Taxpayers’ expense

Friday, March 17, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/03/12/no-govt-bailout-for-silicon-valley-bank-yellen/

 Government won’t bail out Silicon Valley Bank, which paid workers bonuses hours before collapse
By Bruce Golding 
March 12, 2023 12:19pm 

*** begin quote ***

Silicon Valley Bank employees received their annual bonuses shortly before the bank was seized Friday, NBC News reported late Saturday.

The bank traditionally hands out bonuses for the prior year’s work on the second Friday in March, and the payments had been in the works for days, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.  

It’s unclear how much cash was distributed, but NBC said the bonuses likely ranged from $14,000 each for associates to $140,000 apiece for managing directors, based on figures posted on the Glassdoor website.

*** end quote ***

Can anyone say “clawback”?

If the firm fails, why should AYONE get a “bonus”?

I’d argue that alll executive compensation packages should be contingent on the enterprise surviving.

In other blog pasts, I’ve argued that no one should get a “salary” that is more than the US President.  They should then get compensation in the form of bonds strung out over 20 or 40 years.  

We need to figure out how to incentivize long term thinking as a matter of public policy.  The tax code can help in this regard.

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Laugh — Groundhog’s Day

Thursday, March 16, 2023

What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

A truly epicPHYSICS lesson. What is the nature of time?

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