Study suggests cannabis can induce a psychedelic-like “oceanic” experience

by Eric W. Dolan
August 8, 2021



Psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and LSD can induce an experience known as oceanic boundlessness, which is characterized by a feeling of oneness with the world and a sense of awe. New research, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, provides some preliminary evidence that high doses of cannabis can also produce this type of altered state of consciousness.

“Once the psilocybin labs started emphasizing that oceanic boundlessness seemed to be the mechanism underlying the molecule’s antidepressant effects, nearly every cannabis fan couldn’t help but ask, ‘Hey! Doesn’t marijuana have comparable effects?'” said study author Mitch Earleywine, a professor of psychology at the University at Albany.

“My students had already shown that ‘challenging experiences’ were common when folks ate more edibles than they intended to. Asking folks if they thought cannabis also produced these oceanic boundlessness effects seemed an obvious next step.”

For their study, the researchers used Facebook and Amazon Mechanical Turk to recruit a sample of 852 cannabis users, who completed an anonymous survey regarding the most dramatic THC experience of their lives. The survey included items from the oceanic boundlessness subscale of the Altered States of Consciousness Scale, a scientific questionnaire that is frequently used in psychedelic research.

Earleywine and his colleagues found that nearly 20% of participants reported a score on the oceanic boundlessness subscale that was above 60% of the maximum. People who report a score this high are considered as having had a “complete” or “breakthrough” oceanic boundlessness experience.

Previous research has found that psilocybin-induced experiences of oceanic boundlessness are associated with decreases in depression. In particular, “complete” oceanic boundlessness experiences were more strongly linked to decreases in depression than “non-complete” experiences.

The new findings indicate that cannabis “could create some of the subjective effects that seem to underlie psilocybin’s antidepressant effects,” Earleywine told PsyPost.

But the researchers noted that the rate of “complete” oceanic boundlessness experiences observed in their study was “significantly smaller than estimates from formal psilocybin trials.” In other words, cannabis does not appear to induce oceanic boundlessness experiences as reliably or strongly as classic psychedelic drugs.

“Formal protocols that borrow from psilocybin research, including the use of stated intentions, psychological support, music, and an eye mask, might enhance the rates of THC-induced breakthrough, potentially leading to therapeutic effects,” the researchers said. “In addition, since THC’s initial pharmacological impact varies from psilocybin’s, comparing the two in randomized clinical trials might answer important questions related to the role of subjective experiences in psychoactive-assisted psychotherapy.”

The study is the first step towards a better understanding of THC-induced mystical experiences. But future research is needed to determine whether cannabis-induced oceanic boundlessness has any positive therapeutic effects. “We need to bring folks into the lab to see if these effects are real, then get approval for a clinical trial,” Earleywine said. “I don’t recommend the home game. Cannabis can make depression worse for some people, or so it seems.”

The study, “Cannabis-induced oceanic boundlessness“, was authored by Mitch Earleywine, Luna F Ueno, Maha N. Mian and Brianna R. Altman.

Two Ice Age cave lion cubs discovered in Russia


The mummified remains of two cave lion cubs were discovered in Russia, and the recently unveiled specimens may be the best examples of cave lion mummies in the world

Alexandra Larkin

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The Centre for Palaeogenetics e78j-obx0ae-hig.jpg

Boris, the male cub, was found in 2017 when Boris Berezhnev, a local resident and licensed mammoth tusk collector, was searching for mammoth tusks along the Semyuelyakh River in Siberia. The cub is around 43,448 years old.

Just a year later in 2018, a female cub was found about 15 meters away. Researchers named her Sparta, and she is roughly 27,962 years old. Both cubs were discovered around 10 to 12 meters deep and are around the size of an adult house cat. The cubs were only one or two months old when they were mummified.

Researchers identified the two cubs as cave lions in a research paper published August 4. Cave lions lived across Europe and Asia until their extinction around 10,000 years ago. These two specimens are particularly important due to their well-preserved state.

© Provided by CBS News The frozen mummies of the cave lion cubs. / Credit: The Preliminary Analysis of Cave Lion Cubs Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) from the Permafrost of Siberia. Quaternary 2021, 4, 24. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/quat4030024

"Finding intact frozen specimens like this is important," professor Love Dalen, a member of the Stockholm University's Center for Palaeogenetics research team, told CBS News. "It lets us discover new things about extinct species, such as the color of their fur… these frozen animals often have excellent DNA preservation, letting us investigate the genomes of extinct animals.

"The cub named Sparta is especially unique since it is likely the best preserved Ice Age specimen ever found," Dalen said.

Because they were frozen in ice, the color of their fur seen in photos taken after their discovery is probably the same as it was when they were living.

Cave lions are similar to modern African lions, but they "likely diverged from modern lions around 1.85 million years ago," Dalen says.

"They were up to 20% larger than modern lions, and the males did possibly not have any mane. The cave lion was likely adapted to cold environments, and were a top predator in the mammoth steppe ecosystem."

© Provided by CBS News Selected paintings of adult cave lions from Chauvet cave / Credit: The Preliminary Analysis of Cave Lion Cubs Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) from the Permafrost of Siberia. Quaternary 2021, 4, 24. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/quat4030024

Cave lions are particularly interesting because of the number of prehistoric paintings depicting them — paintings that have actually helped researchers learn about the extinct animal's anatomy.

"The cave paintings only show lions without manes," Dalen says. "So one hypothesis based on the cave art is that the males lacked manes, something that we can possibly test using genetic methods in the future."

While researchers say it is "very difficult" to pin down what killed the two lion cubs, it is clear that they were not killed by predators. There is also no evidence that scavengers had access to the cubs after they died, as there are no teeth marks anywhere on the remains.

This indicates that they may have been buried under the ice soon after their deaths. One possibility floated by researchers is that a landslide buried their dens. Both cubs had skull damage and rib dislocations, which supports this theory.

Two other lion cubs had previously been discovered in the same river basin, leading researchers to believe that the area was a favorite breeding site for cave lions.

Noor Mukadam: The beheading of a diplomat's daughter shows how badly Pakistan is failing its women

NO HONOR IN KILLING WOMEN;

FEMICIDE,MISOGYNY,PATRIARCHY,ISLAM

By Sophia Saifi, CNN 

Few cases of femicide make headlines in Pakistan, but the beheading of an ambassador's daughter promises to test a legal system activists say has repeatedly failed victims of violence and needs urgent reform

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© Courtesy Shaukhat Mukkadam Noor Mukadam was described by her sister described as a "beautiful person" who wanted to change the world.

© Sophia Saifi/CNN Women light candles at a vigil for Noor Mukadam in Islamabad.

According to a police report seen by CNN, Noor Mukadam, 27, died on July 20 after being allegedly tortured and killed by an acquaintance -- Zahir Jaffer, the 30-year-old son of an influential family and a dual Pakistan-US national.

Mukadam's death may have been lost in Pakistan's crime statistics, if not for her status and Jaffer's family connections, as well as the affluent location of the killing in block F7, one of Islamabad's most exclusive neighborhoods.

In the days after her death, Pakistanis demanded #JusticeforNoor on Twitter, and a GoFundMe page to raise money for her family's legal fees hit almost $50,000 before her family requested it be closed, according to a message on the site.

The message suggested the family faces a long legal battle, despite claims of "strong circumstantial and forensic evidence" of Jaffer's guilt by their chief legal counsel, Shah Khawar.

Jaffer was arrested at the scene of the alleged attack and later charged with premeditated murder. His lawyer, Ansar Nawaz Mirza, said he hadn't spoken to Jaffer since the alleged attack but said his client "deserves a fair trial."

Activists are using this case to renew calls for the country's Parliament to pass a law criminalizing domestic violence. Although the law -- if passed -- would only apply to the Islamabad Capital Territory, activists believe it would encourage other provinces to pass similar legislation as the capital is controlled by the country's ruling party.

© Courtesy Shaukhat Mukkadam Noor Mukadam died on June 20 at the home of a wealthy family in Islamabad.

After being held up in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament, the bill was sent for review to the all-male member Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), the constitutional body that advises the legislature on whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam.

The council has a poor record on domestic violence -- in 2016, it proposed its own bill to allow men to "lightly beat" their wives.

Women's rights activists fear the conservative council will use its influence on the legislation to kill the bill, sending a message that violence against women in their own homes is allowed, or even condoned.

Mukadam didn't answer her phone

Pictures of Mukadam shared by her friends and family with CNN show a tall, vivacious young woman, posing in the glow of fairy lights and shimmying for gifs. Another photograph shows her with strings of jasmine in her hair, clutching a tiny dog to her chest, her long wavy hair askew.

Her friend and feminist activist Zahra Haider told CNN that Mukadam "was the kind of girl who went the extra mile for her loved ones" who liked going for drives to pick up fast food and "dancing on the roof in the rain."

© Din Muhammad Watanpaal/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images Members of Women Democratic Front and Civil Society Organization protest against violence after Noor Mukkadam's murder.

She was born in Jordan, said her father, Shaukhat Mukadam, a distinguished Pakistani diplomat and former envoy to South Korea and Ireland. He told CNN his daughter was an artistic, soft-hearted girl who "loved animals and making her family laugh."

According to the police report he filed on the night of her death, Shaukhat Mukadam said he and his wife were in different parts of the city on July 19, shopping and running errands ahead of the Eid holiday. They returned to the family home, where their daughter lived, around sunset, to find she had not returned to the house.

They tried to phone her, but her mobile phone was switched off, so they began searching for her with the assistance of her friends, according to the report. That night, Noor Mukadam called her parents saying that she would be traveling with friends to Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, and they shouldn't worry. They didn't hear from her again, according to the police report.

The next afternoon, on July 20, the Mukadams received an unexpected phone call from Zahir Jaffer stating that Noor was not with him. Hours later, police phoned her father to tell him Noor Mukadam had been killed, and he should report to the police station. He was then taken to the Jaffer family residence to identify his daughter's body.

Police have not speculated on a motive for the alleged murder. Jaffer and Mukadam, and their families, were known to each other, according to the police report. Police are not commenting publicly beyond the police report.

Jaffer's parents, Asmat Adamjee Jaffer and Zakir Jaffer, the director of Ahmed Jaffer & Company (Pvt) Ltd, one of the oldest family-run trading and project management companies in the country, were also arrested on charges of concealing evidence and abetment, according to the police report. Both had their bail pleas rejected Thursday as information provided to the judge suggested both made the "utmost efforts" to remove evidence of the alleged murder, according to a court judgment seen by CNN. In a statement to CNN, Rizwan Abbasi, the lawyer for both parents, said his clients had publicly condemned the murder. "We stand with the affected party (and) we don't stand with our son," the statement said

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© Courtesy Asma Khwaja A mural at a vigil site was defaced with black paint.

A statement on the company's website condemned the incident, and said "what cannot be disassociated is our family link to the tragedy, which is undeniable but we request you not judge us all by the horrific actions of one."


Pakistan's proposed new domestic violence law

Mukadam's death has drawn attention to the plight of women and girls in Pakistan, where violence against them is considered a "serious problem," according to a 2020 country report from Human Rights Watch.

© Courtesy Asma Khwaja People laid flowers at a vigil for Noor Mukadam in Sialkot, Pakistan.

Around 28% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, Pakistan's Ministry of Human Rights said, citing the country's Demographic and Health Survey from 2017-2018.

Often, violence occurs within marriage and goes unreported, because it is considered a cultural norm in Pakistan's patriarchal society, according to a World Health Organization review of literature on domestic violence in Pakistan from 2008 to 2018.

Campaigners say it's not just societal norms that stop women from reporting abuse -- the legal system is stacked against them.

Lawyer and women's rights campaigner Sahar Bandial said Pakistan's criminal justice system sees domestic violence offenses as a "private matter" between couples and families.

There is no national law, though some provinces have their own legislation. Sindh and Balochistan provinces, for example, outlaw domestic violence including physical, emotional, economic and verbal abuse. If convicted, offenders could face a prison term and be ordered to pay compensation to the victim. Punjab also has domestic violence legislation, though no criminal penalties.

In other parts of Pakistan, women have no recourse.

Nighat Dad, a Pakistani lawyer and founder of Digital Rights Foundation, said criminalizing domestic violence would force the country to confront some difficult truths.

"People are much more comfortable with the concept of stranger violence because it externalizes the threat," she said.

"The criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul in order to be women and survivor-centric.

"Currently, from top to bottom the system is geared towards discouraging survivors from reporting and pursuing cases," she said. "The entire process leaves victims retraumatized. There needs to be structural reform."

What the new bill proposes

The Pakistan Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill calls for offenders to be fined or imprisoned for abusing women, children or vulnerable people.

It was passed in the National Assembly, the lower house of the country's Parliament, on April 19. However, its progress through the Senate stalled when opposition members succeeded by one vote to refer the bill to the Senate Committee on Human Rights for further review. It was ultimately passed by the Senate on June 21 and progressed to the next step, presidential assent, for final approval.

However, in early July, the adviser to the prime minister on parliamentary affairs, Babar Awan, wrote a letter to the speaker of Parliament, seeking a review of the bill by the Islamic Council.

In the leaked letter, Awan stated "the bill contravenes the Islamic (injunctions) and way of life as enshrined in responsibility of the state."

It's not clear when the Islamic Council will respond.

Ghulam Dastagheer, the council's chief research officer, told CNN it hadn't received the bill from the office of the speaker of Parliament.

"It's only when we officially receive the paperwork that we can start assessing it," he added.

The proposed national bill has become a lightning rod for feminists who claim its delay is a classic example of how legislation regarding violence against women is treated in the country.

Asma Khawar Khawaja, a human rights lawyer based in Sialkot, told CNN the wave of cases of violence against women in the country was like "standing next to a tsunami".

Digital Rights Foundation founder Dad said it "was disappointing" to see Prime Minister Khan refer the matter to the Islamic Council, a move she said points towards "a lack of political will at the very top" to bring about change, since it is not common for bills to be referred to the body.

It took Khan 12 days to comment on Noor's killing, a delay some are interpreting as a sign that he is bowing to more conservative elements of his party -- and the country.

Last Sunday, in a televised town hall, Khan called Mukadam's death a "tragedy."

"I have been following all developments of the case closely, and no one will escape justice," he said.

Pakistan "cannot afford more Noors"

In the days after Mukadam's killing, her hometown gathered to protest and hold a vigil in her memory. A sea of white candles was lit, surrounded by portraits of her smiling face and bouquets of roses.

Since then, there have been protests in cities across the world, including Dublin, Los Angeles, New York, London and Toronto, in the memory of Noor and against femicide in Pakistan.

The crime dominated conversation on Soul Sisters Pakistan, a closed Facebook group with almost 300,000 members that provides a safe digital space for Pakistani women.

Kanwal Ahmed, the group's founder, said women had been expressing their fear "because of the helplessness of the victim's family, the lack of attention by the leadership and there being the potential of no accountability," which she called "terrifying."

However, the outpouring of grief provoked backlash within the country.

On Monday, a mural of Mukadam at a vigil in the city of Sialkot was defaced with black paint, and in the city of Faisalabad on Sunday, local authorities refused to allow a protest led by female activists, a situation Amnesty International said was of "serious concern."

Rafia Zakaria, a feminist author and columnist for Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, said what we're seeing is a moment of "reckoning" as people realize "these are the last stands of this sort of patriarchy."

"The country cannot afford more Noors. There is a sense of collective trauma, and the only deliverance is a kind of catharsis that we can't do this anymore," she said.

Noor Mukadam's older sister, Sara Mukadam, said her younger sibling was a "beautiful person" who wanted to change the world. "She was here to change the world, she always talked about it. Her being my younger sister, I would brush her off and say, 'What do you mean, you want to do something'?"

She and others now hope Mukadam's death will lead to change -- and create enough impetus for stronger laws to protect women against violence.

"Her sacrifice will change the world and women will fights for their rights because of Noor. We will miss her forever," she said.

Shaukhat Mukadam said his family wants justice.

"It's not just the murder of my daughter. We have to have justice because (there are) implications ... for all Pakistani people's daughters."

Malawi soccer player said she was forced to strip publicly multiple times to prove she was female

National Post Staff 

Malawi international soccer player Tabitha Chawinga has called for better safeguards against women in the sport in Malawi, saying that she has been forced to strip publicly multiple times to prove that she is female.

© Provided by National Post Tabitha Chawinga has called for better safeguards against women footballers in Malawi, saying that she has been asked to strip publicly to prove that she is female.

The 25-year-old, who now plays for Wuhan Jianghan University FC in the Chinese Women’s Super League, told the Guardian that she has been asked twice to strip publicly during a match, in front of the opposition.

The first time, she said, happened when she was only 13 years old and was playing for a girls’ school team. Her opponents did not believe she was female because of her looks and her impressive performance.

“I had never been so devastated and I cried at the embarrassment that I had been exposed to. I wanted to walk out right away but somehow my teammates consoled me and I decided to finish the game,” she said. The incident had made her quit the sport for a year.

A year later, she played for the Malawi capital Lilongwe women’s soccer team, DD Sunshine, which she said was her first step into a professional soccer career.

She had been asked to undress on the pitch during a women’s Presidential Cup match.

“We were participating in a Presidential Cup match and for our first game we travelled to Blantyre to play Blantyre Zero. It was a very difficult game and while it was being played, I was undressed right in the ground,” Chawinga told the Guardian. “I lost it right at that moment and we ended up losing the game as well.”

DD Sunshine’s owner, David Dube, said that the club had complained to the Football Association of Malawi but did not receive a response.

At the time, Chawinga did not take up the issue with the authorities since she was so young, she said, but now she wanted to speak out.

“When I was being stripped, I was young and I didn’t know my rights. But if we talk about rights, they should be implemented. I am encouraging those women who have a passion for football that everything is possible. And being born different is not the end of the world,” said Chawinga, whose sister Temwa also plays in China.

“I would like to ask the government and the sports officials to make sure that the rights of every player are protected. This is the way I was born and I know I am God’s creation. I can’t change how I look,” she said.

Alfred Gunda, the current general secretary of the Football Association of Malawi, was not with the organization at the time Chawinga’s club had filed the complaint. He told the Guardian: “What happened is not right and we cannot condone it and that’s why we encourage, in this day and age, that officials take responsibility and take care of the players as their own kids, and also make sure that any incidents that happen are reported and the right measures are taken so that we protect our girls.”

Chawinga went on to captain the Malawi national team and became the first woman to sign for a European football team when she joined the Swedish club Krokom/Dvärsätts IF in 2014.

Former Canadian chief justice says she's staying on Hong Kong court to help preserve city's 'last bastion of democracy'
Tom Blackwell 

© Provided by National Post


Beverley McLachlin is strongly defending her decision to remain on Hong Kong’s highest court, saying that to quit now would only harm the city’s “last bastion” of democracy as Beijing clamps down on the city.

The former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada has come under criticism for renewing her appointment as one of 14 part-time foreign judges on the enclave’s Court of Final Appeal. Some legal experts and others argue she and her colleagues are lending their considerable esteem to an increasingly repressive legal system.

But McLachlin told the National Post in an interview that she made a “principled decision” to stay on after being assured by the court’s chief justice the judiciary would continue to be independent.

She said that means, for instance, that the chief justice would appoint judges to hear sensitive national security cases and not — as allowed by the city’s controversial new National Security Law — Hong Kong’s China-anointed head of government.

“I’ve given these thing a lot of thought. I tried to make my decision on the basis of principle,” said McLachlin.

“The court is perhaps the last democratic institution in Hong Kong that has not been challenged.… I do not wish to do anything that will weaken the last bastion perhaps of intact democracy in Hong Kong. And it’s as simple as that.”

Canada's ex-chief justice renews job on top Hong Kong court despite Beijing's tightening grip

Courts immune to pressure from China, ex-Canadian chief justice says after Hong Kong judging stint

McLachlin added, however, that she won’t hesitate to resign if what she considers the court’s current state of independence changes.

“If it’s challenged in any way that is inconsistent with my principles, then I’m gone, “ she said. “I’m sorry, I won’t be part of it.”

McLachlin is one of 14 top-flight judges from common-law jurisdictions like the U.K. and Australia who sit as “non-permanent” members of the final appeal court. The unique arrangement was set out in the Basic Law, the Hong Kong constitution agreed to by China and Britain when the city was handed over to Beijing in 1997. It was meant to replace the process under British rule that allowed rulings to be appealed to a higher court in London.

She was the first Canadian and one of the first two women to fill the role when appointed in 2018. Last month, she was re-appointed for another three-year term, and will hear her next slate of cases next January.

But since McLachlin first signed onto the court, Beijing has lowered the boom on Hong Kong and many of the freedoms that had set it apart from the mainland.

Most significantly, it imposed the national security law, which makes it a serious crime to undermine the authority of the state, collude with foreign countries or “elements” or promote Hong Kong’s independence.

More than 100 people, including protest organizers and opposition politicians, have been arrested under the legislation, as the number of independent, elected members of the city’s legislative council was also cut back. After the arrest of its owners and many of its editors, the fiercely independent Apple Daily newspaper said it had no choice but to shut down .

Baroness Brenda Hale of the U.K., appointed alongside McLachlin, decided not to serve for another term, though cited only personal reasons. An Australian judge on the court, James Spigelman, quit and raised concerns about the security law.

Critics say the Court of Final Appeal itself has been compromised, partly because the security law has essentially become part of Hong Kong’s constitution, overriding some liberties outlined in the Basic Law. And it allows Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s Beijing-approved chief executive, to appoint judges to hear national security cases.

But McLachlin said Lam told Chief Justice Andrew Cheung that he alone will be assigning judges to the court’s cases, including those dealing with the security law.

Could the Canadian herself potentially hear a national security-related appeal? “I think that’s quite possible ,” she said.

McLachlin also bristles at the notion that she and the other foreign judges are being used as window dressing for a system increasingly intolerant of political dissent.

“I don’t think we’re providing cover for anything,” she said. “I am a judge on the court. I am not a participant in the government in Hong Kong in any other way. That court is independent … and I believe for the benefit of the citizens of Hong Kong who seek justice, it should remain that way.”

McLachlin said there is a “great danger” that if the foreign judges were to leave, it would be taken as a sign that people could no longer rely on the court for impartial rulings.

“And that would be a negative sign and I believe a negative development for Hong Kong.”

• Email: tblackwell@postmedia.com | Twitter: tomblackwellNP

'Olympian' bat's flight offers climate change clues

LONDON (AP) — A tiny bat that flew 2,018 kilometers (1,254 miles) from Britain to Russia is being hailed as a mini-Olympian by scientists who hope her flight will teach them more about how climate change is affecting the species.

The Nathusius’ pipistrelle was found in a village in the Pskov region of northwestern Russia, according to the U.K.’s Bat Conservation Trust. The bat, which weighed eight grams (0.28 ounces) and was about the size of a human thumb, had been ringed by a bat recorder near London’s Heathrow Airport in 2016.

Unfortunately, the creature had been attacked by a cat and later died, despite the efforts of Russian conservationists.

“This is a remarkable journey and the longest one we know of any bat from Britain across Europe,’’ said Lisa Worledge, head of conservation services at the Bat Conservation Trust.

 “What an Olympian!’’

The Nathusius’ pipistrelle is found across Europe from the U.K. to Asia Minor. But recent studies suggest that some bats are now spending the winter further north than in the past and that their numbers are increasing in the British Isles.

Researchers believe this range expansion is linked to climate change, and the trust is working with citizen scientists to study migration journeys and better understand this impact.

The bat’s journey from Britain to Russia is one of the longest on record and the only long distance movement of this scale reported from west to east, the trust said. Most of the recorded flights involve bats that flew southwest from Latvia.

The record belongs to a Nathusius’ pipistrelle that migrated all the way from Latvia to Spain in 2019, a distance of 2,224 kilometers (1,382 miles).

“This is very exciting,” said Brian Briggs, who ringed the London bat. “It’s great to be able to contribute to the international conservation work to protect these extraordinary animals and learn more about their fascinating lives.”

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press

Inside the workshop where robots of the future are being built

Anderson Cooper CNN


Boston Dynamics is a cutting-edge robotics company that's spent decades behind closed doors making robots that move in ways we've only seen in science fiction films. They occasionally release videos on YouTube of their life-like machines spinning, somersaulting or sprinting, which are greeted with fascination and fear. As we first told you this past spring, we'd been trying without any luck to get into Boston Dynamics' workshop for years, and in March, they finally agreed to let us in. After working out strict COVID protocols we went to Massachusetts to see how they make robots do the unimaginable. 

© Credit: CBSNews robotsscreengrabs01.jpg


From the outside, Boston Dynamics headquarters looks pretty normal. Inside, however. it's anything but. If Willy Wonka made robots, his workshop might look something like this. There are robots in corridors, offices and kennels. They trot and dance and whirl and the 200-or-so human roboticists, who build and often break them, barely bat an eye.

© Provided by CBS News Atlas

That is Atlas, the most human-looking robot they've ever made.

It's nearly 5 feet tall, 175 pounds, nd is programmed to run, leap and spin like an automated acrobat.

Marc Raibert, the founder and chairman of Boston Dynamics doesn't like to play favorites, but definitely has a soft spot for Atlas.

Marc Raibert: So here's a little bit of a jump.

Anderson Cooper: I mean, that's incredible. (LAUGH)

Atlas isn't doing all this on its own. Technician Bryan Hollingsworth is steering it with this remote control. But the robot's software allows it to make other key decisions autonomously.

Marc Raibert: So really the robot is

Anderson Cooper: That's incredible--

Marc Raibert: You know, doing all its own balance, all its own control. Bryan's just steering it, telling it what speed and direction. Its computers are-- adjusting how the legs are placed and what forces it's applying--

Marc Raibert: In order to keep it-- balanced.

Atlas balances with the help of sensors, as well as a gyroscope and three on-board computers. It was definitely built to be pushed around.

Marc Raibert: Good, push it a little bit more. It's just trying to keep its balance. Just like you will, if I push you. And you can push it in any direction, you can push it from the side. (LAUGH)

 Provided by CBS News Marc Raibert

Making machines that can stay upright on their own and move through the world with the ease of an animal or human has been an obsession of Marc Raiberts' for 40 years.

Anderson Cooper: The space of time you've been working in is nothing compared to the time it's taken for animals and humans to develop.

Marc Raibert: Some people look at me and say, "Oh, Raibert, you've been stuck on this problem for 40 years." Animals are amazingly good, and people, at-- at what they do. You know, we're so agile. We're so versatile. We really haven't achieved what humans can do yet. But I think-- I think we can.

Raibert isn't making it easy for himself, he's given most of his robots legs.

Anderson Cooper: Why focus on, on legs? I would think wheels would be easier.

Marc Raibert: Yeah, wheels and tracks are great if you have a prepared surface like a road or even a dirt road. But people and animals can go anywhere on earth-- using their legs. And, so, that, you know, that was the inspiration.

Some of the first contraptions he built in the early 1980s bounced around on what looked like pogo sticks. They appeared in this documentary when Raibert was a pioneering professor of robotics and computer science at Carnegie Mellon. He founded Boston Dynamics in 1992, and with CEO Robert Playter has been working for decades to perfect how robots move.

© Provided by CBS News Big Dog

They developed this robot, called Big Dog, for the military as well as a larger pack mule that could carry 400 pounds on its back. Experimenting with speed, they got this cheetah-like robot to run nearly 30 miles an hour.

None of these made it out of the prototype phase. But they did lead to this. It's called Spot. Boston Dynamics made it not knowing exactly how it would be used.

But the inspiration for it isn't hard to figure out.

Hannah Rossi: So Spot is a omni-directional robot. So I can go forwards and backwards.

Anderson Cooper: This is crazy. (LAUGH)

Robert Playter: This is the real benefit of legs. Legs give you that capability.

That's Robert Playter, the CEO, and Hannah Rossi, a technician who works on Spot.

Hannah Rossi: I'm not doing anything special to let it walk over those rocks. There you go.

The controls are easier to use than you might expect.

Anderson Cooper: Does it have to come in, straight on?

Hannah Rossi: You don't have to be perfect about it drive it close to wherever you want to go and the robot will do the rest.

Anderson Cooper: Wow. In some ways it's like driving a very sophisticated remote control car. What makes it different?

Robert Playter: Spot is really smart about its own locomotion. It deals with all the details about how to place my feet, what gait to use, how to manage my body so that all you have to tell it is the direction they go to.

© Provided by CBS News Robert Playter, Hannah Rossi and Anderson Cooper check out Spot

And in some cases, you don't even have to do that. When signaled, Spot can take itself off its charging station and go for a walk on its own -- as long as it's pre-programmed with the route.

It uses five 3D cameras to map its surroundings and avoid obstacles.

Atlas has a similar technology, while we were talking in front of Atlas, this is how it saw us.

Marc Raibert: This is inside Atlas's brain. And it shows its perception system. So, what looks like a flashlight is really the data that's coming back from its cameras. And it-- you see the white-- rectangles, that means it's identifying a place that it could step. And then once it identifies it, it attaches those footsteps to it, and it says, "Okay, I'm gonna try and step there." And then it adjusts its mechanics so that it actually hits those places when it's-- running.

All of that happens in a matter of milliseconds.

Marc Raibert: And so it's gonna use that vision to adjust itself as it goes running over these blocks.

Atlas cost tens of millions of dollars to develop, but it's not for sale. It's used purely for research and development.

But Spot is on the market. Around 500 are out in the world. They sell for about $75,000 apiece, accessories cost extra. Some spots work at utility companies using mounted cameras to check on equipment. Others monitor construction sites and several police departments have tried them out to assist with investigations.

© Provided by CBS News Robert Playter

Anderson Cooper: Let's talk about the the fear factor, When you post a video of Atlas or Spot doing something, a ton of people are amazed by it and think it's great. And there's a lot of people who think this is terrifying.

Robert Playter: The rogue robot story is a powerful story. And it's been told for 100 years. But it's fiction. Robots don't have agency. They don't make up their own minds about what their tasks are. They operate within a narrow bound of their programming.

Anderson Cooper: It is easy to project human qualities onto these machines.

Robert Playter: I think people do attribute to our robots much more than they should. Because you know, they haven't seen machines move like this before. And so they-- they want to project intelligence and emotion onto that in ways that are fiction.

In other words, these robots still have a long way to go.

Anderson Cooper: I mean, it's not C3PO. It-- it's not-- a thinking--

Marc Raibert: Yeah. So let me tell you--

Anderson Cooper: Okay.

Marc Raibert: About that. There's a cognitive intelligence and an athletic intelligence. You know, cognitive intelligence is making plans, making decisions-- reasoning, and things like that.

Anderson Cooper: It's not doing that?

Marc Raibert: It's mostly doing athletic intelligence--

Anderson Cooper: Okay--

Marc Raibert: Which is managing its body, its posture, its energetics. If you told it to travel in a circle in the room it can go through the sequence of steps. But if you ask it to-- go find me a soda, it's-- it's not doing anything like that.

Just picking an item off the floor can sometimes be a struggle for Spot. Enabling it to open a door has taken years of programming and practice and a human has to tell it where the hinges are.

Kevin Blankespoor: Each time we add some new capability-- and we feel like we've got it to a decent point, that's when you push it to failure to figure out, you know, how good of a job you've really done.

Kevin Blankespoor is one of the lead engineers here, but at times, he prefers a very low-tech approach to testing robots.

Anderson Cooper: You're pretty tough on robots.

Kevin Blankespoor: We think of that as-- as just another way to push them out of the comfort zone.

© Provided by CBS News Anderson Cooper and Kevin Blankespoor

Failure is a big part of the process. When trying something new, robots, like humans, don't get it right every time. There might be dozens of crashes for every one success.

Anderson Cooper: How often do you break a robot? (LAUGH)

Marc Raibert: We break them all the time. I mean, it's part of our culture. We have a motto, "Build it, break it, fix it."

To do that, Boston Dynamics has recruited roboticists with diverse backgrounds - there's plenty of Ph.D's, but also bike builders, and race car mechanics. Bill Washburn is part of that pit crew.

Anderson Cooper: They all look pretty dinged up.

Bill Washburn: Yeah.

Anderson Cooper: How often do these need to get repaired?

Bill Washburn: The biggest-- kinda failures for me are, like, the bottom part of the robot breaks off of the top part of the robot. (CHUCKLE) And it's like--

Anderson Cooper: That seems like a big-- big failure. (CHUCKLE)

Bill Washburn: And the hydraulic hoses are the only thing holding it together.

Recently, Raibert and his team decided to push their robots in a way they never had before.

Marc Raibert: We spent at least six months, maybe eight, just preparing for what we were gonna do. And then we started to get the technical teams working on the behavior.

The behavior was dancing. All their robots got in on the act. The movements were cutting edge, but the music and the Mashed Potato were definitely oldschool.

Anderson Cooper: There are some people who see that and say, "That can't be real."

Marc Raibert: Nothing's more gratifying than hearing that.

Anderson Cooper: What's the point in proving that the robot can do the Mashed Potato?

Marc Raibert: This process of, you know, doing new things with the robots lets you generate new tools, new approaches, new understanding of the problem-- that takes you forward. But, man, isn't it just fun?

Anderson Cooper: But, I mean, it's-- it costs a lotta money. It took 18 months of your time.

Marc Raibert: I think it was worth it. (LAUGHTER)

Whether it'll be worth it to Boston Dynamics' new owners is less clear

The South Korean carmaker, Hyundai, has purchased a majority stake for nearly a billion dollars. It is Boston Dynamics' third owner in eight years. There's pressure to turn their research into revenue.

And Boston Dynamics hopes this new robot will help. It's called Stretch and it's due to go on sale next year. This was the first time they'd shown it publically.

Kevin Blankespoor: Warehouses is really the next frontier for robotics.

Stretch may not be that exciting to look at, but it's built with a definite purpose in mind. It's got a seven-foot arm and they say it can move 800 boxes an hour in a warehouse and work for up to 16 hours without a break. Unlike many industrial robots that sit in one place, stretch is designed to move around.

Kevin Blankespoor: You can drive it around with a joystick. And at times, that's the easiest way to get it set up. But once it's ready to go in a truck and unload it, you hit go and from there on it's autonomous. And it'll keep finding boxes and moving 'em until it's all the way through.

Robert Playter: This generation of robots is gonna be different. They're gonna work amongst us. They're gonna work next to us-- in ways where we help them but they also take some of the burden from us.

Anderson Cooper: The more robots are integrated into the workforce, the more jobs would be taken away.

Robert Playter: At the same time, you're creating a new industry. We envision a job-- we-- we-- we like to call the robot wrangler. He'll launch and manage five to 10 robots at a time and sort of-- keep them all working.

Anderson Cooper: Is there a robot you've always dreamt of making (LAUGH) that you haven't been able to do yet?

Marc Raibert: A car with an active suspension essentially legs like w-- like a roller skating robot. And a robot like that, you know, could go anywhere on earth. That's one thing that maybe we'll do at some point. But, you know, really, the sky's the limit. There's-- there's all kinds of things we can and will do.

As with so many things Boston Dynamics does. It's hard to imagine how that would work, but then again, who'd have thought a bunch of metal machines would one day show us all how to do the Mashed Potato.

Produced by Nichole Marks. Associate producer, David M. Levine. Broadcast associate, Annabelle Hanflig. Edited by Sean Kelly.

Male southern resident killer whale possibly dead from cancer, says expert


VANCOUVER — The endangered southern resident killer whale population may have suffered more loss with one of the orcas presumed dead, says an expert. © Provided by The Canadian Press

The orca, K-21, was seen in the last week of July and photos showed that it seemed to be wasting away, said Andrew Trites, director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia.

Endangered southern residents are made up of three separate pods: K, J and L, which travel mostly off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon.

"I've never seen a killer whale whose dorsal fin is collapsed. Totally collapsed. And severe peanut head," Trites said in an interview.

"He seemed to be at a point that it would be very likely that he wasn't going to live much longer. It seems very unlikely that he is still alive."

K-21, also known as Cappuccino, was 35 years old and was distinctive with its broad dorsal fin and bright, open saddle patch that made him stand out even from great distances, said a post on the Washington-based Center for Whale Research website. Cappuccino was the oldest male of the southern residents since the death of L-41 in 2019, it added.

Trites said the average lifespan for male southern residents is estimated to be between 18 and 30.

"He was certainly an old male by killer whale standards."

While orcas are under severe stress from several factors including noise from vessels and lack of salmon, Trites said Cappuccino’s presumed death is not from a shortage of food.

"I'd say the most likely explanation in his case is that he has cancer and he's at the last stages of it," he said. "It's terminal."

Killer whales are at the top of the food chain, which means they have no predators and usually die of natural causes with cancer being one of them, he said.

"And the thing with a whale that is wasted away, which means it's basically burned up all this body fat so that when it dies, it's not going to float, it'll sink," he said.

"There's very little chance that a body would be recovered so you could do a proper necropsy to determine the cause of death."

The killer whale population has had five calves born over the past two years. Scientists are waiting for the pods to return to British Columbia's coastal waters for a longer period, most likely in September and October, to assess their health, Trites said.

The number of southern resident killer whales will come down to 74 once Cappuccino’s death is confirmed.

"Many people are very attached to this one animal and they've known him for 35 years," Trites said.

"So, it's like a death in the family that affects those who know the animals well, and nobody likes to think of an animal suffering."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2021.

Hina Alam, The Canadian Press

NIMBYism Puts The Kibosh On America’s Largest Solar Power Plant

Plans to build the largest solar power plant in the US have been cancelled because of local opposition.


By Steve Hanley
Published July 31, 2021

In many parts of the American southwest, a mesa is a flat topped geological formation known as a tableland. One of them is the Morman Mesa, a 149,000 acre tableland located above the confluence of the Muddy and Virgin Rivers, north of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The area is under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management and is a protected area for the desert tortoise. It is also the home of Double Negative, an artistic rendering by artist Micheal Heizer. It consists of two trenches 30 feet wide, 50 feet deep, and 1500 feet long dug into the Earth. It is significant that the 244,000 tons of rocks excavated to create the “sculpture” were unceremoniously dumped into the valley below during its construction. More about that later.

Several years ago, a plan spearheaded by then Senator Harry Reid was put forward to build Battle Born Solar Project, the largest solar power plant in the United States, on Mormon Mesa. The project would cover 14 square miles — about 9000 acres, or less than 7% of the mesa’s total area. Over time, the project developer became Solar Partner VII, a subsidiary of California based Arevia.

Even though the project would be sited out of sight of nearby towns, it provoked a fierce backlash from the local community, a backlash that coalesced into something called Save Our Mesa. At the end of July, Arevia notified BLM it was abandoning the project. The Save Our Mesa folks were ecstatic.

The group argued such a large installation would be an eyesore and curtail the area’s popular recreational activities such as riding dirt bikes and ATVs and skydiving. It also said it would discourage tourists from visiting Heizer’s Double Negative sculpture. But the heart of the protest was “not in my backyard” self-interest. Let’s take a look at the overheated language presented on the group’s website.

I first want to make it clear that we are just a group of residents that saw a possible tragedy for our community and our way of life. We are NOT against renewable energy, we are against irresponsible decisions that are being made without sufficient studies as to what the impacts are.

The majority of our community’s revenue comes from tourism. We lost a lot of tourism and businesses when the shrinking lake levels of Lake Mead occurred closing a nearby beach. We have struggled but built back our economy through tourism. When people come and camp/hotel for a week, they buy our gas, our groceries, eat in our restaurants, use our mechanics and parts stores. This allows these businesses to thrive thus keeping us self sufficient. Feedback from many of our Snowbirds was that they would look for new places to go ‘[if the solar power plant was built]. That’s lost revenue.

We were simply trying to save our community and our way of life. We are not expendable for the “greater good” as I was told we should be! Moapa Valley would NOT gain anything from this project. In fact the power was slated for California. So why should we sacrifice OUR lives? The solar farm that was being proposed was going to be the largest in the nation. 14 sq miles, equivalent to 2/3 the size of Manhattan. Our homes are less than 8000’ from it.

There aren’t enough studies to show what this size of a project would do to us. Will our temps be too hot to live here, would the dust choke us or make us sick, would we ever get rainfall? Would our rivers, that run down both sides of the Mesa into Lake Mead, get contaminated? The list goes on. These were SERIOUS concerns! Simply “saying” that won’t happen, was not good enough, we were essentially going to be lab rats. Our goal all along was to get them to move this project to a more appropriate location, in which they have stated is one of their reasons for withdrawal.

Why are we not pushing for rooftop solar as much as we are pushing to destroy the desert southwests public lands? Look at the rooftops available in major metropolitan areas alone!! Las Vegas has thousands of acres of rooftop with the casinos alone!

We need to slow this rush to solar farms in the desert until studies are done. What will it look like in 10, 20, or 30 years down the road when all these solar farms age out. Are we creating a bigger problem for our future generations when there is millions of tons of non-recyclable waste? The deserts would never recover. Once it’s done, it can’t be undone.

Dissecting The Opposition

OK. That’s quite a long list of complaints Save Our Mesa has got there. And some of them are valid. If the Battle Born Solar Project did actually have a negative impact on the local economy [the developers says it would create over 2,000 new jobs], that would be a valid reason to oppose it. But many of the group’s complaints are 100% pure horse puckey.

A solar power plant will create dust that will roll down and pollute the local lakes and rivers, but thousands of people tearing up the landscape on dirt bikes, off-road vehicles, and jeeps won’t? That strains credulity. Millions of tons of non-recyclable waste? Where did they hear that, Tucker Carlson? And what about the 244,000 tons of debris from the Double Negative project that got dumped into the valley below. Was that used to mulch the petunias in local flower beds?

That seems like the comment left recently on a story I did about Toyota and its anti-EV policies. “Super smart move, let’s all replace CO2 emissions with toxic batteries that end up in rivers and lakes.” Yup, there’s some certified Artificial Stupidity right there.
Selfishness And Self-Interest

NIMBYism is strong in some of the group’s complaints. Why should they provide electricity to those pinheads in San Francisco and LA? The connection between an overheating planet and a lack of water to fill Lake Mead apparently is too remote for them to comprehend. But people are funny. Folks in Wyoming wonder the same thing about wind farms that supply power to West Coast nerds. Those who live in western New York are none too keen about giving up their farmland to keep the lights on in New York City.

Can you suggest a strategy that might help get people onboard with renewable energy? How about cutting them in on the deal by sharing some of that clean energy with the local community? That’s such a no brainer that it’s hard to believe every renewable energy developer doesn’t make it part of their toolkit every time a project is proposed.

Would the attitudes of local residents change if they could have access to clean energy at an attractive price? How about helping them get residential storage batteries that would keep their lights on if there is a power outage?

The Takeaway

A lot of the complaints about the Battle Born Solar Project are overblown, but there is a kernel of reality to them. People who are worried about their personal finances are inclined to be a little bit skittish about slick-talking outsiders riding into town with a trunk load of fancy promises. I’m nobody from nowhere, but I know a developer has to offer the locals something to get them to buy in to all those pie-in-the-sky plans.

You wouldn’t expect a new car customer to buy an EV just because it’s good for the planet, would you? Why should renewable energy be any different? These developers don’t seem to have a very good understanding of human behavior. Yes, the locals doth protest too much, but the developer deserves some blame for handling the public relations aspect of its project so poorly.

Why spend all that time and money on plans and permits but none on some good old-fashioned salesmanship? The US and the world are the big losers in this deal.

[Editor’s note: Some research in Denmark several years ago found that a critical solution to avoid NIMBYism blocking large wind power projects was to bring the financial benefits to locals to some degree — give them a cut of the profits. I’m not sure how much that insight is used by large renewable energy project developers, but as Steve says, at this stage, “it’s hard to believe every renewable energy developer doesn’t make it part of their toolkit every time a project is proposed.” My impression, though, is that not much is offered to local communities in almost all cases. Promises of jobs and an economic boost, of course, but not clear direct benefits to nearby residents. —Zach]


WRITTEN BY Steve Hanley
Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his homes in Florida and Connecticut or anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. You can follow him on Twitter but not on any social media platforms run by evil overlords like Facebook.

Re-reading W. E. B. Du Bois: the global dimensions of the US civil rights struggle*

Eve Darian-Smith

Global & International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Journal of Global History (2012), 7, pp. 483–505 & London School of Economics and Political Science 2012   doi:10.1017/S1740022812000290

Abstract

Drawing on the increasingly important insights of historians concerned with global and transnational perspectives, in this article I argue that Du Bois’ international activism and writings on global oppression in the decades following the Second World War profoundly shaped the ways in which people in the United States engaged with race as a concept and social practice in the mid decades of the twentieth century. Du Bois’ efforts to bring his insights on global racism home to the US domestic legal arena were to a large degree thwarted by a US foreign policy focused on Cold War politics and interested in pursuing racial equality not on the basis of universal human rights principles but as a Cold War political strategy. Nonetheless, I argue that Du Bois’ writings, which were informed by a new rhetoric of global responsibility and universal citizenship, had unpredictable and significant consequences in shaping the direction of US racial politics in the civil rights era.

https://www.global.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.gisp.d7-2/files/sitefiles/people/Darian-Smith%20Du%20Bois%20Article%20JGH.pdf