119 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2024
  2. Feb 2024
  3. Dec 2023
      • annotate
      • for: evolutionary biology, big history, DH, Deep Humanity, theories of consciousness, ESP project, Earth Species Project, Michael Levin, animal communication, symbiocene

      • title: The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains

      • author: Joseph LeDoux
      • date: Jan. 2023
      • doi: 0.1080/09515089.2022.2160311

      • ABSTRACT

        • The essence of who we are depends on our brains.
        • They enable us to think, to
          • feel joy and sorrow,
          • communicate through speech,
          • reflect on the moments of our lives, and to
            • anticipate,
            • plan for, and
            • worry about our imagined futures.
        • Although some of our abilities are comparatively new, key features of our behavior have deep roots that can be traced to the beginning of life.
        • By following the story of behavior, step-by-step, over its roughly four-billion-year trajectory,
          • we come to understand both
            • how similar we are to all organisms that have ever lived, and
            • how different we are from even our closest animal relatives.
        • We care about our differences because they are ours. But differences do not make us superior; they simply make us different.
      • comment

        • good article to contribute to a narrative of the symbiocene and a shift of humanity to belonging to nature as one species, instead of dominating nature as the apex species
      • question
        • @Gyuri, Could indranet search algorithm have made the connection between this article and the symbiocene artilces in my mindplex had I not explicitly made the associations manually through my tags? It needs to be able to do this
      • Also interesting to see how this materialistic outlook of consciousness
        • which is similiar to the Earth Species Project work and Michael Levin's work on synthesizing new laboratory life forms to answer evolutionary questions about intelligence
      • relates to nonmaterial ideas about consciousness
    1. Australian Princeton philosopher Peter Singer has 00:42:22 talked about the the broadening radius of our moral uh of our moral scope but those we include within our moral Community uh potentially to include 00:42:35 biota and animals for instance outside the human community
      • for: expanded sense of community, beyond the human morall community, animal communication, earth species protect
  4. Oct 2023
    1. In the case of the binding of Isaac, for instance, Alter not only accepts a previous translator's substitution of "cleaver" for the "knife" of the King James version but also changes "slay" (as in, "Abraham took the knife to slay his son") to "slaughter." Moreover, in his notes, he points out that although this particular Hebrew verb for "bound" (as in, "Abraham bound Isaac his son") occurs only this once in biblical Hebrew, making its meaning uncertain, we can nonetheless take a hint from the fact that when the word reappears in rabbinic Hebrew it refers specifically to the trussing up of animals. Alter's translation thus suggests a dimension of this eerie tale we would probably have overlooked: that of editorial comment. The biblical author, by using words more suited to butchery than ritual sacrifice, lets us know that he is as horrified as we are at the brutality of the act that God has asked Abraham to commit.
      • for: interspecies communications, animal consciousness, animal consciousness - octopus

      • summary

        • Dr. David Edelman presents on the subject of the natural history of the awareness of the octopus
        • The octopus is one of the most complex of invertebrates and its study can give clues about how sensory awareness and consciousness developed in animals
    1. beans and 00:13:54 this is a benchmark of animal sounds and it's a collection of audio recordings from more than 250 species and this large aggregate data set is a way to 00:14:07 test tools for classification and detection and these are outstanding problems in bioacoustics that we desperately need solutions to
      • for: BEANS, Benchmark of Animal Sounds
  5. Sep 2023
      • for: symbiocene, ecozoic, ecocivilization, eco-civilization, animal communication, inter-species communication, Azi Raskin, Earth Species Project, umwelt
      • summary

        • Very interesting talk given by Aza Raskin, founder of:
        • on two main themes:
          • how AI is being used to decode language communication of many different plant and animal species, including inter-fauna, inter-flora and fauna-flora cross communication
          • how AI used to study human languages has detected a universal meaning shape between all languages.
      • reference

    1. the way you say hello in humpback whale is oh
      • for: humpback whale - saying hello, animal communication, whale communication
    2. given this motion for an animal what sound might it 00:35:42 make an example two whales coming together what sound do they make that might mean hello if a whale Dives what sound would the 00:35:54 other whales have to make to make that whale dive and that would mean maybe it means dive maybe it means there is danger up here maybe it means there's food now there but has something to do with diving
      • for: animal motion and language
    3. this is AVS the very first Foundation model for animal communication
    4. can we build one of these kinds of shapes for animal communication
      • for: question, question - universal meaning shape for animal communication

      • comment

        • this would be an amazing project for TPF and BEing journeys. Could we actually talk to animals and plants to ask them about how we humans are treating them?
    5. esearchers in 2019 did this at University of Tel Aviv and they took a primrose flower and they would play different sounds 00:06:03 to the flower and they would play you know like traffic noises low noises bat noises High noises and then the sounds of approaching pollinator and only when they approached or played the sounds of an approaching pollinator 00:06:15 did the flowers respond and they respond by producing more and sweeter nectar within just a couple of seconds right so the flowers hear the B through its petals 00:06:26 and get excited okay so plants can here
      • for: example - animal-plant communication, bee-flower communication, bee - primrose flower communication, communication - animal - plant, communication - bee - flower, 2019 University of Tel Aviv study
      • for: animal communication, AI - animal communication, bioacoustic

      • title: BEAN: The Benchmark of Animal Sounds

      • author

        • Masato Hagiwara
        • Benjamin Hoffman
        • Jen-Yu Liu
        • Maddie Cusimano
      • Abstract

        • The use of machine learning (ML) based techniques has become increasingly popular in the field of bioacoustics over the last years.
        • Fundamental requirements for the successful application of ML based techniques are curated, agreed upon, high-quality datasets and benchmark tasks to be learned on a given dataset.
        • However, the field of bioacoustics so far lacks such public benchmarks which cover multiple tasks and species to measure the performance of ML techniques in a controlled and standardized way and that allows for benchmarking newly proposed techniques to existing ones.
        • Here, we propose BEANS (the BEnchmark of ANimal Sounds), a collection of bioacoustics tasks and public datasets, specifically designed to measure the performance of machine learning algorithms in the field of bioacoustics.
        • The benchmark proposed here consists of two common tasks in bioacoustics:
          • classification and
          • detection.
        • It includes 12 datasets covering various species, including
          • birds,
          • land and marine mammals,
          • anurans, and insects.
        • In addition to the datasets, we also present the performance of a set of standard ML methods as the baseline for task performance.
        • The benchmark and baseline code is made publicly available at
        • in the hope of establishing a new standard dataset for ML-based bioacoustic research.
  6. Aug 2023
    1. It probably isn’t even a stretch to suggest that herds and flocks of many other animals use a form of direct democracy in making their decisions. Again despite the myths, “alphas” do not make decisions for others, “leadership” roles rotate regularly, the “law of two (or four) feet” tests the group’s readiness for consensus, and principles such as the “first follower” enable wild creatures to reach a decision in their group’s best collective interest. Dissenters and unpersuaded group members are free to go off and look for another group, except at critical times (such as breeding season, or when under attack), when all members of the group instinctively pitch in to share the extra burden or workload, or help work through the crisis or challenge. We’re not so different, or, at least, we weren’t.
      • for: animal decision-making
      • adjacency
        • animal herding behavior and
        • direct democracy
      • claim
        • herds and flocks of many other animals (other than human) use a form of direct democracy in making decisions
        • Alphas do not alone make decisions, as leadership often rotates
        • The law of "two feet (or four" tests the group's readiness for consensus and the "first follower" principle
        • dissenters and unpersuaded group members are free to go off and look for another group
          • except at critical times such as
            • breeding season
            • under threat
  7. Jul 2023
    1. Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq.), and—

      From Title 7-AGRICULTURE CHAPTER 54-TRANSPORTATION, SALE, AND HANDLING OF CERTAIN ANIMALS

      §2131. Congressional statement of policy The Congress finds that animals and activities which are regulated under this chapter are either in interstate or foreign commerce or substantially affect such commerce or the free flow thereof, and that regulation of animals and activities as provided in this chapter is necessary to prevent and eliminate burdens upon such commerce and to effectively regulate such commerce, in order-

      (1) to insure that animals intended for use in research facilities or for exhibition purposes or for use as pets are provided humane care and treatment;

      (2) to assure the humane treatment of animals during transportation in commerce; and

      (3) to protect the owners of animals from the theft of their animals by preventing the sale or use of animals which have been stolen.

      The Congress further finds that it is essential to regulate, as provided in this chapter, the transportation, purchase, sale, housing, care, handling, and treatment of animals by carriers or by persons or organizations engaged in using them for research or experimental purposes or for exhibition purposes or holding them for sale as pets or for any such purpose or use.

      ( Pub. L. 89–544, §1(b), formerly §1, Aug. 24, 1966, 80 Stat. 350 ; Pub. L. 91–579, §2, Dec. 24, 1970, 84 Stat. 1560 ; renumbered and amended Pub. L. 94–279, §2, Apr. 22, 1976, 90 Stat. 417 .)

  8. Apr 2023
  9. Mar 2023
    1. in this example, use of insects for animal feed and food for humans presents a Knowable and Avoidable unintended consequence.
      • Example
        • insect for animal feed
          • as a example of knowable and avoidable unintended consequence
    2. The unintended consequence was both Unknowable due to the lack of foresight regarding the potential for insects as feed, and Avoidable had more specific wording been used.
      • Example of unknowable and avoidable
      • The same insect problem above
        • can also be classified as
          • unknowable and
          • avoidable
        • in EU regulation (EC) No 999/2001
          • that does not distinguish between
            • ruminants and
            • insects,
          • in effect banning the use of insects in
            • aquaculture,
            • poultry and
            • pig feed
  10. Jan 2023
    1. A. Both Robespierre and Animal are ambitious and protean members of an elite group, shifting their identities in response to changing conditions and gradually taking on increasingly extreme positions, driving both the French Revolution and the Muppet Show into what is colloquially known as “The Terror”.
    1. We found no statistically significant predictors of either Spring or Autumn migration periods.
    2. For fish, the number of marks in sequences with and without <Y> correlates markedly with the spring migration and hatching.
    3. It seems fairly clear that the concern with sequences associated with birds was to convey the availability of eggs.
    4. Finally, statistics should reinforce the fact that any patterning found cannot be explained as accidental.

      It is possible that the variations in patterning may tell us about the relative timing of the data. Perhaps the earliest data points may have been anecdotal evidence that was improved over time.

      Of course it could be the case that migrations, births, etc. may have shifted somewhat over time.

      What does the general climate data from these areas and this time period show? Is there variability in this time period?

  11. Oct 2022
    1. Nicht wenige Kästen sind nur für ein einziges Buch angelegt worden, Siegfried Kracauers Sammlungen etwa zu seiner Monographie über Jacques Offenbach, das Bildarchiv des Historikers Reinhart Koselleck mit Abteilungen Tausender Fotos von Reiterdenkmälern beispielsweise oder der Kasten des Romanisten Hans Robert Jauß, in dem er für seine Habilitationsschrift mittelalterliche Tiernamen und -eigenschaften verzettelte.

      machine translation (Google)

      Quite a few boxes have been created for just one book, Siegfried Kracauer's collections for his monograph on Jacques Offenbach, for example, the photo archive of the historian Reinhart Koselleck with sections of thousands of photos of equestrian monuments, for example, or the box by the Romanist Hans Robert Jauß, in which he wrote for his Habilitation dissertation bogged down medieval animal names and characteristics.

      A zettelkasten need not be a lifetime practice and historically many were created for supporting a specific project or ultimate work. Examples can be seen in the work of both Robert Green and his former assistant Ryan Holiday who kept separate collections for each of their books, as well as those displayed at the German Literature Archive in Marbach (2013) including Siegfried Kracauer (for a monograph on Jacques Offenbach), Reinhart Koselleck (equestrian related photos), Hans Robert Jauß (a dissertation on medieval animal names and characteristics).

  12. Aug 2022
  13. Jul 2022
    1. the task of biology consists in expanding in two directions the results of cancer investigations by considering the part played by our body and especially by our sense organs 00:04:47 and central nervous system you can see the basic parameters of what we now call cognitive science are coming into being here and by studying the relation of other subjects to objects 00:04:59 it's the subject that kant wants to take seriously that notion is still very undefined and notice here the term animal other subjects so the 00:05:10 animal is a subject here he's trying to take a stance that is not that doesn't traffic in human exceptionalism that takes the embodied being seriously and for him that means something that's 00:05:23 straightforwardly an animal a dog a cat a scientist a limpet and he's going to consider them all with much the same theoretical vocabulary he's pitching in here in 1926

      Uexkull expands Kant's agenda and takes it in the direction of the body, and especially the animal body as playing a major role in knowing about the world. He downplays human exceptionalism by referring to the animal body, not the human body.

    1. The Southern Levant, situated between modern day southern Syria via Israel to Sinai, has a spatiotemporally dense and continuous Paleolithic archaeological record offering a unique opportunity to detect faunal changes, including those predating the appearance of Homo sapiens (Bar-Yosef, 1980; Stutz, 2014). It is thus a suitable model to test long-term changes in the body mass of mammalian assemblages, in view of paleoclimates and changing human lineages, to decipher whether climate and/or humans are responsible for animal body size declines. The excellent archaeological record can further illuminate whether size declines are observed since hominins first colonized the region, or whether they start with the emergence of Homo sapiens (Louys et al., 2021), or are concentrated in the last glacial and its aftermath. We tested whether the size, and size changes, in hominin prey through the Pleistocene and early Holocene were related to time, the prevailing human lineages and cultures, paleoenvironment, and temperatures.

      Southern Levant is unique for providing records for this study.

  14. Feb 2022
    1. Yen, H.-L., Sit, T. H., Brackman, C. J., Chuk, S. S., Cheng, S. M. S., Gu, H., Chang, L. D., Krishnan, P., Ng, D. Y., Liu, G. Y., Hui, M. M., Ho, S. Y., Tam, K. W., Law, P. Y., Su, W., Sia, S. F., Choy, K.-T., Cheuk, S. S., Lau, S. P., … Poon, L. L. (2022). Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (Variant Delta) from Pet Hamsters to Humans and Onward Human Propagation of the Adapted Strain: A Case Study (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 4017393). Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4017393

    1. Kok, K.-H., Wong, S.-C., Chan, W.-M., Lei, W., Chu, A. W.-H., Ip, J. D., Lee, L.-K., Wong, I. T.-F., Lo, H. W.-H., Cheng, V. C.-C., Ho, A. Y.-M., Lam, B. H.-S., Tse, H., Lung, D., Ng, K. H.-L., Au, A. K.-W., Siu, G. K.-H., & Yuen, K.-Y. (2022). Cocirculation of two SARS-CoV-2 variant strains within imported pet hamsters in Hong Kong. Emerging Microbes & Infections, 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2022.2040922

  15. Jan 2022
    1. Kuchipudi, S. V., Surendran-Nair, M., Ruden, R. M., Yon, M., Nissly, R. H., Vandegrift, K. J., Nelli, R. K., Li, L., Jayarao, B. M., Maranas, C. D., Levine, N., Willgert, K., Conlan, A. J. K., Olsen, R. J., Davis, J. J., Musser, J. M., Hudson, P. J., & Kapur, V. (2022). Multiple spillovers from humans and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(6). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121644119

    1. Frere, J. J., Serafini, R. A., Pryce, K. D., Zazhytska, M., Oishi, K., Golynker, I., Panis, M., Zimering, J., Horiuchi, S., Hoagland, D. A., Moller, R., Ruiz, A., Overdevest, J. B., Kodra, A., Canoll, P. D., Goldman, J. E., Borczuk, A. C., Chandar, V., Bram, Y., … tenOever, B. (2022). SARS-CoV-2 infection results in lasting and systemic perturbations post recovery (p. 2022.01.18.476786). https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.18.476786

  16. Dec 2021
  17. Nov 2021
  18. Oct 2021
    1. The kappa agonist spiradoline failed to produce cross-sensitization, but coadministration of spiradoline prevented morphine and buprenorphine from producing cross-sensitization. The ability of spiradoline to block cross-sensitization was itself blocked by the kappa antagonist nor-binaltorphimine.

      This suggests to me that it is the opioid tolerance itself that determines cocaine sensitivity. To test this, I'd like to see a study that administers a KOR agonist after tolerance to opioids has been established, and see if this reverses cocaine sensitivity.

  19. Sep 2021
    1. Neither fentanyl (0.0003–0.02 mg/kg) nor SNC80 (0.03–0.3 mg/kg) changed either ACTH or cortisol basal levels. In contrast, U-50488H (0.01–1 mg/kg) dose-dependently stimulated ACTH and cortisol release in both male and female monkeys. Importantly, the stimulatory effects of U-50488H on the secretion of ACTH were blocked by a selective kappa opioid receptor antagonist, nor-Binaltorphimine.

      Fascinating. I'd expect mu and delta opioids to reduce cortisol, if only indirectly via relaxation.

      Likewise, it is important to understand the mechanism by which kappa agonism increases cortisol. Kappa is known for its dysphoric effects, which would naturally increase cortisol. However, kappa agonism is also consistent with extreme euphoria. This is known from reports with Salvia divinorum and Tabernanthe iboga. Whether this euphoria decreases cortisol or if it is, rather, a form of eustress is a very interesting question.

  20. Aug 2021
    1. At lower doses (0.18 mg/kg and 0.32 mg/kg) we observed no prolonged effect on KOR binding but at 0.60 mg/kg salvinorin A induced a sustained decrease in KOR binding (BPND decreased by 40–49%) which persisted up to 2.5 h post administration, long after salvinorin A had been eliminated from the brain. These data point towards an agonist-induced adaptive response by KOR, the dynamics of which have not been previously studied in vivo with PET.

      This may partly represent the salvia "afterglow". It also demonstrates how rapidly tolerance-like mechanism can occur.

      I find it odd that 0.32 mg/kg had little prolonged effect when twice that dose had a very large effect. I'd expect more of a gradient. The graph (figure 4) shows a nonsignificant drop in KOR binding of ~13% at 1 hour at 0.32 mg/kg, which I'm certain would become statistically significant in a larger sample. Still, that's nowhere near the 45% seen at 0.6 mg/kg. At 0.18 mg/kg, we see ~9%.

      I calculated the human equivalent dose to be 6.8mg (0.6mg0.16270). This is an very high dose, so likely does not represent an accurate dose conversion.

    1. On the contrary, either repeated administration of morphine (s.c. or i.c.v.) or SNC-80 failed to affect the kappa-opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception and G-protein activation. Taken together, these results suggest that repeated stimulation of kappa-opioid receptor markedly increases the functional mu- and delta-opioid receptors, whereas repeated stimulation of either mu- or delta-opioid receptor had no direct effect on kappa-opioidergic function in mice.

      That's quite interesting. I have a vague memory of reading that morphine tolerance upregulates KOR, but that memory may be mistaken. Alternatively, it could be that KOR was upregulated in this study, but it took greater KOR agonism due to mu/delta not providing baseline analgesia due to downregulation. Lastly, there is also the possibility that it takes simultaneous mu and delta agonism to upregulate KOR; this possibility seems likely.

    2. Repeated treatment with (-)U-50,488H (s.c. or i.c.v.) significantly enhanced antinociceptive effect of both mu-opioid receptor agonist (morphine) and delta-opioid receptor agonists

      Just confirming what I believed to be the case. I couldn't remember whether I'd read results of this specific sort, so I figured I should look it up. Chronic KOR agonism appears to be an ideal opioid hack.

  21. Jul 2021
  22. May 2021
    1. In reality there was no escape. Even the one plan that was practicable, suicide, they had no intention of carrying out. To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one's lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available.

      impulse to live

    2. . Winston had dropped his habit of drinking gin at all hours. He seemed to have lost the need for it. He had grown fatter, his varicose ulcer had subsided, leaving only a brown stain on the skin above his ankle, his fits of coughing in the early morning had stopped. The process of life had ceased to be intolerable, he had no longer any impulse to make faces at the telescreen or shout curses at the top of his voice. Now that they had a secure hiding-place, almost a home, it did not even seem a hardship that they could only meet infrequently and for a couple of hours at a time. What mattered was that the room over the junk-shop should exist. To know that it was there, inviolate, was almost the same as being in it. The room was a world, a pocket of the past where extinct animals could walk.

      change in Winston, idea of him as "extinct animal"

    3. Not merely the love of one person but the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that was the force that would tear the Party to pieces.
  23. Apr 2021
    1. The digestive consequences of forage consumption are determined by plant forage quality and animal digestive and detoxification abilities. This interaction, in turn, affects the nutrients and energy available for animal growth and maintenance.
  24. Mar 2021
    1. The decrease in total activity count and phase delay of onset of the activity rhythm caused by ethanol were partially antagonized by theophylline.

      I think the takeaway is that theophylline may help with phase delay. Though, that is merely my thoughts at first glance. Not to mention that this is rat data. Nonetheless, combining this with data on the cAMP and cGMP role in circadian rhythm, I'm relatively confident that methylxanthines have some effect on circadian rhythm. Most likely phase advancing effects.

      In practice, this means theobromine should be explored as a treatment for Delayed Sleep Phase syndrome (DSPS). It may also be useful for some non-24 conditions. I may consider upping my theobromine dose so that I can get to sleep early and wake up early.

      Also, perhaps I should avoid ethanol in the morning. Hard to say from this data.

  25. Feb 2021
  26. Oct 2020
  27. Sep 2020
  28. Aug 2020
    1. Felipe, L. S., Vercruysse, T., Sharma, S., Ma, J., Lemmens, V., Looveren, D. van, Javarappa, M. P. A., Boudewijns, R., Malengier-Devlies, B., Kaptein, S. F., Liesenborghs, L., Keyzer, C. D., Bervoets, L., Rasulova, M., Seldeslachts, L., Jansen, S., Yakass, M. B., Quaye, O., Li, L.-H., … Dallmeier, K. (2020). A single-dose live-attenuated YF17D-vectored SARS-CoV2 vaccine candidate. BioRxiv, 2020.07.08.193045. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.08.193045

    1. Kreye, J., Reincke, S. M., Kornau, H.-C., Sánchez-Sendin, E., Corman, V. M., Liu, H., Yuan, M., Wu, N. C., Zhu, X., Lee, C.-C. D., Trimpert, J., Höltje, M., Dietert, K., Stöffler, L., Wardenburg, N. von, Hoof, S. van, Homeyer, M. A., Hoffmann, J., Abdelgawad, A., … Prüss, H. (2020). A SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody protects from lung pathology in a COVID-19 hamster model. BioRxiv, 2020.08.15.252320. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.15.252320

  29. Jul 2020
    1. “Up north you’d collect lightning bugs and you’d watch them and then you’d let them go again,” Gail said. “I thought it was really cool. I mean, you are looking and trying to figure out how they fly and how that little light works.”

      Isn't curiosity how you fall in love with something or someone ?

    2. Ed says rescuing people is easier because they can tell you what’s wrong with them.

      How interesting that rescuing animals is harder than rescuing people

    1. Stalking Cat is open to the idea of a relationship, especially with a cat girl by far, which may exist but they haven't met them. It requires a very deep bond, and it's difficult to deny that bond to a given animal, so I imagine it might be difficult to sustain a non cat-cat relationship.

      There's also the issue of not having enough time to sustain a relationship, as much time is spent pursuing body modifications.

    2. Going back a few generations, apparently what Stalking Cat is doing was a "fairly common thing" in the Huron (may've misspelled that) tribe, according to a professor of Native American Studies.

    3. Interesting story behind feline dentures, how the dentist refused to do them when they were healthy, but when Stalking Cat destroyed their teeth from years of drinkin' and druggin' (their words, not mine), the dentist agreed to sculpt feline teeth-style dentures.

      I'm surprised it doesn't affect Cat's speech (much).

    4. Stalking Cat spent a lot of time self-medicating with drugs and alcohol trying to deny their empathy and their connection to different animals, especially cats. Trying to subdue and deny these feelings didn't work very well, but living as a cat counteracted these negative feelings.

    5. Being 1/2 Indian (Native American) & 1/2 White was a very big culture shock to Stalking Cat, as they fought with both the Indians & the Whites for being partially the other race. Stalking Cat accepted the cat/tigress as their spirit animal, which was originally pointed out by the medicine man of Cat's tribe.

      Has many tattoos, started with aquatic animals and moved onto cat-type tattoos.

  30. Jun 2020
    1. The furries are kind of like the new age Native American where they have the spirit animal or connection, or like, they take on that personal animal. . . . And whatever you put on, [you] take on those characters [and] aspects, and, for some people with social stigma who can’t interact, they put on the suit and they’re a completely different person.

      Make note of Sarah Marie Henry's Furries, Fans, and Feminism: Querying and Queering of the Furry Fandom. Sarah Marie Henry made a very good point about the appropriation of Native American culture in the furry fandom, something that is not exactly the nicest thing to do. Traditions stay within certain groups for a reason. A direct quotation/reference may be impossible, as the only copy of this master's thesis is locked up in San Francisco State University, and there's a pandemic. 😕

    1. Here the diagnosis slips from requiring both being “less than 100% human” and “being 0% human” to only requiring the first criterion—being “less than 100% human.” The implications of this rhetorical slip are a vast shift in proportion, since it triples the number of furries who are potentially diagnosable as having species identity disorder (from 31 to 99 [or 46%] of the 214 furries who answered).

      I would argue that this is too loose of a definition. It does not simply refer to a physical body, which has pretty clear criteria for being considered 100% human. To be "less than 100% human" psychologically, while being a good basis for a disorder, does not adequately consider groups with a spiritual connection to animals, such as the Native American tradition of "spirit animals". This vague definition and exclusion of established cultural practices could prove harmful to the legitimacy of "species identity disorder".

    1. Snyder-Mackler, N., Burger, J. R., Gaydosh, L., Belsky, D. W., Noppert, G. A., Campos, F. A., Bartolomucci, A., Yang, Y. C., Aiello, A. E., O’Rand, A., Harris, K. M., Shively, C. A., Alberts, S. C., & Tung, J. (2020). Social determinants of health and survival in humans and other animals. Science, 368(6493). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax9553

  31. May 2020
  32. Apr 2020
  33. Oct 2019
    1. 7-Eleven moves to support animal welfare By Nick Hall | 17 Feb 2019 View comments Global convenience chain, 7-Eleven has made major changes to its supplier sourcing agreement, eliminating caged eggs for the first time. The move follows ongoing criticism of the Australian cage egg farming industry, with several brands and chains making the early decision to move to wholly sustainable sourcing in-line with welfare standards. Working closely with suppliers across all states, 7-Eleven has now ensured that only free range eggs would be available for order by all stores. Clayton Ford, General Manager Corporate Affairs, 7-Eleven said the decision to phase out cage eggs was developed in accordance with franchisee wishes, with the convenience giant announcing it will increase support to assist in the transition. “Whilst our franchisees are free to engage with alternative suppliers due to our franchise agreement, we will continue to work alongside them to encourage their involvement in this initiative by sourcing free range eggs via our centralised supply chain,” Ford said. “We recognise that this is just one step, and we will continue to review animal welfare commitments in our supply chain and 7-Eleven branded products as opportunities arise.” Want to launch a convenience store of your own? Take a look at all available franchising opportunities here.
    2. Global convenience chain, 7-Eleven has made major changes to its supplier sourcing agreement, eliminating caged eggs for the first time. The move follows ongoing criticism of the Australian cage egg farming industry, with several brands and chains making the early decision to move to wholly sustainable sourcing in-line with welfare standards. Working closely with suppliers across all states, 7-Eleven has now ensured that only free range eggs would be available for order by all stores. Clayton Ford, General Manager Corporate Affairs, 7-Eleven said the decision to phase out cage eggs was developed in accordance with franchisee wishes, with the convenience giant announcing it will increase support to assist in the transition. “Whilst our franchisees are free to engage with alternative suppliers due to our franchise agreement, we will continue to work alongside them to encourage their involvement in this initiative by sourcing free range eggs via our centralised supply chain,” Ford said. “We recognise that this is just one step, and we will continue to review animal welfare commitments in our supply chain and 7-Eleven branded products as opportunities arise.” Want to launch a convenience store of your own? Take a look at all available franchising opportunities here.
    1. 7-Eleven, the world's largest grocery store chain, has over 68,000 locations worldwide. Each store contributes to the devastating plastic waste crisis by supplying customers with single-use plastic bags with every visit, while animals are forced to try to survive in life-threatening habitats that are rapidly becoming plastic wastelands. Please urge 7-Eleven to phase out single-use plastic bags before it is too late! Every year, eight million metric tons of plastic waste enters the world's oceans, including single-use plastic bags. A staggering 1 trillion single-use plastic bags are used annually worldwide, which is equal to an unimaginable 2 million bags per minute. While most bags are used for just a few minutes, it takes roughly 500 years for many of these bags to degrade. However, know that they will never actually biodegrade, but instead will turn into toxic microplastics which continue to pollute the environment forever. Up to 80% of plastic in the oceans drifts away from coastal areas and is pulled out to deeper water. Plastic waste is responsible for killing over 1 million marine animals every year. Currently, an estimated 100 million tons of plastic waste can be found in the oceans. If this disastrous trend continues, plastic waste is expected to outweigh all of the fish in the oceans by 2050. Hundreds of species of marine animals, including fish, seabirds, turtles, sharks, whales, sea lions, and dolphins, are at risk of entanglement, choking, or starving as they're forced to live in marine habitats that are rapidly becoming inundated with plastic waste. Sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and unknowingly consume them as do whales and other animals. Seabirds also mistake pieces of bags and other small pieces of plastic waste for food. As their stomachs fill with plastic that isn't passed out of their systems, animals slowly starve to death. Powerful images created by international marine wildlife conservation organization Sea Shepherd Conservation Society highlight how animals become trapped or entangled in bags causing painful injuries, strangulation, suffocation, and death. Single-use plastics bags not only harm the environment and animals when they are discarded; their production is also extremely destructive. The United States alone uses 100 billion plastic bags every year; the average American family uses a staggering 1,500 plastic bags per year—which requires 12 million barrels of habitat-destroying oil to manufacture. Only 1% of these bags are ever recycled. The vast majority end up in landfills, and ultimately, the oceans. When 7-Eleven stores throughout Thailand encouraged customers to opt for reusable bags, 169 million single-use plastic bags went unused in just two months! If all 7-Eleven locations offered customers the option of purchasing reusable bags made of recycled and environmentally-friendly materials, countless animals could be spared painful deaths caused by plastic!     With thousands of locations worldwide, 7-Eleven has an unprecedented opportunity to drastically reduce the amount of plastic waste that is destroying ocean habitats and killing defenseless animals in the process. Please comment on 7-Eleven's social media accounts and then fill out the form on this page to send our email urging the convenience store to ban single-use plastic bags! 1. Comment on 7-Eleven's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Example: "Please phase out single-use plastic bags and offer reusable options at all 7-Eleven locations to save marine animals from entanglement, choking and slow starvation as well as the environment! Every year, one trillion single-use bags pollute habitats all over the world!" 2. Email 7-Eleven's President and CEO, Joseph M. DePinto by filling out the form on this page.
  34. Sep 2019
  35. Apr 2019
  36. Feb 2019
    1. disuse of our Faculties we seem to have lost them if we ever had uny arc sunk into an Animal life wholly taken up with sensible objects

      She's making a cut here, where the use of certain faculties are what separate Human life from Animal life.

      By "sensible objects" does she mean those which can be sensed (tangible, concrete, as opposed to the other connotation of sensible as reasonable)? If so, then Animals are distinguished by living in a world of senses where Humans live in a world of both physical sensation and mental faculties (?).

  37. Jan 2019
  38. Dec 2018
  39. Aug 2018
  40. Nov 2017
  41. Sep 2017
  42. May 2017
  43. Mar 2017
    1. Even if one were to accept on principle the suggestion by animal philosophers and activists that if we experiment on animals we ought to be experimenting on impaired human patients, that population would not be best suited for scientific studies.

      This seems like a generalisation to me. As if all animal rights advocates would demand experiments to be taken to humans instead. Please correct me, if I am wrong, but as far as I'm informed many demand for more computer simulations and in vitro testing?

    1. Unfortunately, penicillin was ineffective against the rabbit's infection. Disappointed, Fleming set the drug aside for a decade, as the rabbits had "proved" the drug was useless as a systemic medication.Years later, he administered the drug in desperation to a dying patient, for whom all other treatments were ineffectual. The penicillin performed a miracle, and the rest is history.

      Interesting how these two sources contradict each other with regards to why Fleming did not release Penicillin for ten years.

      Article: Understanding animal research

    1. Had Fleming himself carried out a simple and well established animal test - the mouse protection test - the potential of his discovery might have been realised 10 years earlier

      Interesting how these two sources contradict each other with regards to why Fleming did not release Penicillin for ten years.

      Article: Would drugs be safe for us without animal tests?

  44. Feb 2017
  45. Dec 2016
    1. Luckily, GitHub introduced issue templates:

      One of my favorite: "picture of a cute animal " :)

      "

      • What I did
      • How I did it
      • How to verify it
      • Description for the changelog
      • A picture of a cute animal (not mandatory but encouraged) "

      Docker - PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE

      examples:

  46. Oct 2013
    1. As birds are born to fly, horses to run, and wild beasts to show fierceness, so to us peculiarly belong activity and sagacity of understanding

      Uses metaphor to make it seem natural and inborn