Unborn babies are able to hear in the womb at just 16 weeks gestation, a new study has revealed.
For the first time scientists at the Institut Marques in Barcelona have shown a fetus is able to detect sounds, and furthermore, that they respond by moving their mouths and tongues.
It is accepted that an unborn baby’s ear is fully developed at week 16 of a pregnancy.
But, until now experts did not believe a fetus could hear until week 18, at the earliest but more commonly nearer 26 weeks.
Dr Marisa Lopez-Teijon, who led the study, said the findings show a fetus responds to music transmitted intravaginally by moving their mouth and tongue, ‘as if they were trying to speak or sing’. (Read more from “Amazing Video Shows Babies ‘SINGING’ in the Womb” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-09 00:04:532016-04-11 10:57:34Amazing Video Shows Babies ‘SINGING’ in the Womb
In the last day, Hillary Clinton announced her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal that she will likely claim she only championed as part of her duties as secretary of state and that, in reality, she just as likely helped to create. She probably opposes it as strongly as she did NAFTA, which her husband created, and which she and Barack Obama campaigned against in 2008 and then proceeded to do nothing about. This is a habit. She probably is doing this because, in spite of a career in which neoliberalism got her this far, Bernie Sanders is starting to eat her lunch among labor voters, progressives and anyone who is not a big-money donor. You know, the people who vastly outnumber the latter and do things en masse, like vote.
In the last 10 days, once-prospective Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy praised the House Select Committee on Benghazi for doing what it was always — only — ever intended to do. “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” he told Sean Hannity. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.” McCarthy, who possesses both the look and adroitness of a personal injury attorney, accidentally disclosed that the allegedly most vital investigative body in American government is a petty leverage tool as sound as a plastic spork trying to pry open the pull tab on a fruit cup. Telling the truth only cost McCarthy his shot at a job doing the opposite.
But while the former issue addresses an agreement that covers 40 percent of the world’s total trade and represents a volte-face by a candidate critics accuse of having zero core beliefs beyond electability, the latter is what will make headlines forever. A trade deal, the future of American labor and the shrinking manufacturing base of this country is something for “unserious” social-democrat whackos like Bernie Sanders to talk about.
When we talk about Benghazi, we’re talking about who Hillary Clinton really is. And that’s something we’ll be forced to talk about until November 2016, with cynical political imprecations like murderer, with sad-sack troll jobs from dead-enders like Rand Paul, and with the inevitable Hillary Clinton response. A new declaration of authenticity — whatever that means, in a contest among people who think it’s normal to believe they can and should lead the free world — a new field trip to middle America, maybe a video with grandmothers, as if it say, “I, Hillary Clinton, recognize that those are grandmothers” . . .
More power to you if you remember what is being investigated about the September 11, 2012, attack on Benghazi, and what was found. Four Americans are dead, and the truth of their loss for friends and loved ones probably represents the alpha and omega of any objective sense of what happened: Everything else is a mishmash of fuckups, bad estimates and, later, bad spokesperson responses crushed under a midden of horseshit and committee minutes. Embassies request additional temporary security all the time, and most of the time nothing happens. In the past, when bad things happened, we responded with something like political proportionality, despite death tolls that would send today’s conservatives reeling and calling for the smelling salts. This time, the bad thing happened in Libya. And while one might want to blame the Republican-controlled House for cutting $243 million from America’s embassy security budget, that’s almost as much of a political football propelled by hindsight as anything the Republican Party has done since. (Read more from “There Is No Real Hillary Clinton” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-09 00:03:312016-04-11 10:57:34There Is No Real Hillary Clinton
The administration at the University of Toronto was recently enlightened on why two separate washrooms are generally established for men and women sharing co-ed residencies.
The University is temporarily changing its policy on gender-neutral bathrooms after two separate incidents of “voyeurism” were reported on campus September 15 and 19. Male students within the University’s Whitney Hall student residence were caught holding their cellphones over female students’ shower stalls and filming them as they showered.
Melinda Scott, dean of students at the University of Toronto, told The Daily Wire that campus police had been contacted immediately and worked with residence staff to “support impacted students and ensure the safety of the Residences.”
“Given the serious nature of these incidents and the impact on directly affected students, we made the decision to specifically designate some washrooms in Whitney Hall for those who identify as men and those who identify as women,” Scott said . . .
Of course the University maintained it would not be so intolerant as to limit men and women to designated bathrooms. Instead, it is a “temporary measure” to “provide a safe space for the women who have been directly impacted by the incidents of voyeurism and other students who may feel more comfortable in a single gender washroom in the wake of these events.” (Read more from “This University Has Dumped Transgender Bathrooms After Peeping Incidents” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-09 00:01:232016-04-11 10:57:34This University Has Dumped Transgender Bathrooms After Peeping Incidents
Ted Cruz raised $12.2 million in the past three months for his Republican presidential bid, about twice what competitor Marco Rubio collected in the same time period.
The new numbers are being circulated by the campaigns ahead of a deadline next week to report fundraising to federal regulators. The quarterly figures mark a practical and symbolic measure of strength for all presidential candidates, but they don’t tell the whole story.
Cruz and Rubio both topped Rand Paul, whose presidential campaign said it had pulled in $2.5 million through the end of September. Several candidates struggled to raise money over the summer months, with celebrity real estate mogul Donald Trump commanding attention in what remains a 15-candidate fight for the nomination. (Read more from “Here’s How Much Cruz Has Raised for His Presidential Bid” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-09 00:00:062016-04-11 10:57:34Here’s How Much Cruz Has Raised for His Presidential Bid
Secretary of State John Kerry warns the world that more and more people will be fleeing the devastation caused by global warming. “It’s something new. We have climate refugees today,” he said during a town hall event about the oceans.
Kerry described climate refugees as people who had to leave their homes because of drought, rising sea levels, and thawing permafrost.
“[T]he day could come, if we don’t respond rapidly, you could have millions of climate refugees. You could have people moving from whole areas where today you can grow things and tomorrow you can’t,” he said.
He remarked that more world leaders had begun to talk about this rising threat in many of his international meetings, although he admitted that the issue was not yet a “crescendo.”
International organizations, like the United Nations, he admitted, would have to codify the term “climate refugee” and put it into law. That would grant special immigration privileges to immigrants claiming refugee status, allowing them to move to other countries. (Read more from “John Kerry Predicts Millions of ‘Climate Refugees’ Will Need ‘Special Status'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-08 23:59:102016-04-11 10:57:34John Kerry Predicts Millions of ‘Climate Refugees’ Will Need ‘Special Status’
Russia has carried out a series of deadly airstrikes against the terrorist group over the last few days and Vladimir Putin has now sent the country’s most elite special forces team into the war zone.
And speculation is heightening that offensive will be bolstered by the China’s People’s Liberation Army, following a number of reports of military movements in the region backed up by strong words from a senior government member at a United Nations meeting.
Reports emanating from the Middle East last week said China was planning on joining the fight against ISIS “in the coming weeks”, according to a Syrian army official.
While Beijing insists it will abide by the United Nations (UN) in the region, hints of an action were backed up when it spoke strongly about a coordinated response to the rising terrorist threat . . .
China has also shown solidarity with Syria, joining Russia in vetoeing UN proposals against Bashar al-Assad, which are likely to prevent him being referred by the council to the International Criminal Court. (Read more from “Putin’s Boost in Battle Against ISIS: China Preparing to ‘Team up With Russia in Syria'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-08 23:56:082016-04-11 10:57:35Putin’s Boost in Battle Against ISIS: China Preparing to ‘Team up With Russia in Syria’
A man’s potentially fatal encounter with a shark saved his life, after doctors treating him for his injuries discovered he had cancer.
Eugene Finney was on a family holiday with his two children, aged 6 and 10, and his girlfriend on Huntington Beach, California, when he went for a swim and felt something “slam into his back” . . .
Returning to work in his home town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, he struggled with back and chest pain caused by the attack and visited [the] hospital, Boston CBS Local reported.
Doctors treating Mr Finney for his blunt force trauma wounds then confronted him with the news that they had discovered a stage one tumour on his right kidney, around the size of a walnut.
Medics were then able to operate on Mr Finney and remove the growth in its early stages. (Read more from “This Is How a Shark Attack Saved a Man’s Life” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-08 23:54:082016-04-11 10:57:35This Is How a Shark Attack Saved a Man’s Life
The United States Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery has issued a warning about “male privilege” and is teaching ways to combat it.
The agency has issued two charts, the “Power and Control Wheel” and the “Equality Wheel,” in a new document posted on the Navy’s website . . .
As Social Memo points out, the Navy’s document appears to only address physical and sexual violence perpetrated by men.
A 2012 study by Bert H. Hoff, J.D. found “More men than women were victims of intimate partner physical violence within the past year, according to a national study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Department of Justice.”
Hoff’s research found that in the 12 months prior to the study’s release, “an estimated 5,365,000 men and 4,741,000 women were victims of intimate partner physical violence.” That’s 53% and 47% respectively. (Read more from “U.S. Navy Teaching Sailors to Combat ‘Male Privilege'” HERE)
They call her the Queen of Ivory — a 66-year-old Chinese woman who became famous for her role in Africa’s illegal wildlife trade. Over 15 years, she helped smuggle more than 700 elephant tusks out of Africa, officials said Thursday. But as authorities closed in, Yang Feng Glan managed to evade arrest.
Until now.
Yang was detained in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam after a high-speed chase and is apparently the most prominent Chinese national charged with wildlife trafficking in Africa. The short, bespectacled owner of a well-known Chinese restaurant doesn’t fit the image of a poaching kingpin, but that’s exactly what she is, according to Tanzanian officials.
Yang was behind an illicit trade worth millions of dollars, using her ties to the Chinese and Tanzanian elite to move ivory across the world, officials said. Ivory trafficking has resulted in immense damage to wildlife across Africa, but particularly in Tanzania. Between 2009 and 2014, the country’s elephant population plummeted from 109,051 to 43,330.
“She was at the center of that killing,” said Andrea Crosta, the executive director of Elephant Action League, a U.S.-based environmental watchdog group. (Read more from “Prosecutors Say This 66-Year-Old Chinese Woman Is One of Africa’s Most Notorious Smugglers” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-08 23:52:222016-04-11 10:57:35Prosecutors Say This 66-Year-Old Chinese Woman Is One of Africa’s Most Notorious Smugglers
By Andrew Griffin. Stephen Hawking has warned that artificially intelligent machines could kill us because they are too clever.
Such computers could become so competent that they kill us by accident, Hawking has warned in his first Ask Me Anything session on Reddit.
A questioner noted that Professor Hawking’s ideas about artificial intelligence are seen as “a belief in Terminator-style ‘Evil AI’”, and asked how he would present his own beliefs.
“The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence,” Professor Hawking said. “A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.
“You’re probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and there’s an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. Let’s not place humanity in the position of those ants.” (Read more from “This Is What Stephen Hawking Claims Could ‘Wipe out Humanity'” HERE)
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‘Psychic Robot’ System Guesses Intentions From Your Movements
By Devin Coldewey. If we are to have artificial intelligence assisting us in driving, working and walking around, it will need to understand not just what we’re doing but what we mean to do.Researchers, at the University of Illinois at Chicago have created a system that does just that, albeit on a limited scale.
By carefully watching the motion of a person’s arm, the system determines what the intention of that arm is — to pick up an object, for example — and can tell when that intention has changed or been disturbed.
“We call it a psychic robot,” said lead author Justin Horowitz in a news release. “If you know how someone is moving and what the disturbance is, you can tell the underlying intent — which means we could use this algorithm to design machines that could correct the course of a swerving car or help a stroke patient with spasticity.” (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-08 23:51:452016-04-11 10:57:35This Is What Stephen Hawking Claims Could ‘Wipe out Humanity’
