Kenya declares a surprise public holiday for a national campaign to plant 15 billion trees

EMMANUEL IGUNZA
Tue, November 7, 2023 



Kenya Jacaranda
A Jacaranda tree in bloom in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Every year in early October, clusters of purple haze dot Nairobi's tree line as the city's jacaranda trees come into bloom.

 (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Kenyan government announced Monday a surprise public holiday on Nov. 13 for a nationwide tree planting day, part of its ambitious plan to plant 15 billion trees by 2032

Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki made the announcement via a gazette notice posted on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, following a cabinet meeting held last week and chaired by President William Ruto.

“The Government has declared a special holiday on Monday, November 13, 2023, during which the public across the Country shall be expected to plant trees as a patriotic contribution to the national efforts to save our Country from the devastating effects of Climate Change,” said Kindiki.

Kenya’s current forest cover currently stands at about 7% but the government has set aside more than $80 million this financial year, as it bids to increase tree cover to more than 10%.

Trees store carbon, one of the main drivers of global warming. In contrast, deforestation accelerates climate change: it halts plant photosynthesis, so the trees are no longer taking up carbon. It’s also often accompanied by burning, which releases lots of carbon dioxide.

Climate change is worsening droughts in the Horn of Africa, including Kenya, where rains have failed for five seasons in a row.

The Kenyan environment, climate change and forestry ministry said it would provide tree seedlings for what it said was “an unprecedented show of commitment by the Government towards our climate action obligations”

“It is a moment for Kenyans to stand in solidarity in the defense of our environment, it’s a ‘hummingbird’ contribution day, all of us pulling together to fight back the climate change crisis “said Environment Minister Soipan Tuya

President Ruto has made the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Program a priority since assuming the presidency in September 2022.

His plans drew praises from King Charles III, who was in Kenya last week for his first visit to an African nation since he ascended the throne last year.

“Having been planting trees for most of my life, I thought I was doing rather well, but your ambition for planting 15 billion trees makes me admire your efforts,” King Charles said at a state banquet.

While in the country, Charles planted a tree at the State House in the capital Nairobi and at the Karura forest, which is associated with the late environmentalist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai.

Ambitious workers are the first to get worse at their jobs under a toxic, abusive boss, study suggests

Chloe Berger
Wed, November 8, 2023 


A bad boss a day keeps the employee away—or at least highly irritable. Unless you’re a muppet working on Sesame Street, you’ve likely encountered some version of The Simpson’s Mr. Burns when clocking into a miserable job. While they might not always be as sinister as to suggest to “release the hounds,” a bad boss typically has a penchant for ruining your day with an outburst or passive aggressive email. But some workers stand to be more affected by it than others.

So finds a group of researchers from the Stevens Institute of Technology and University of Illinois Chicago. Their newly published peer-reviewed study looked at bosses and workers from more than 40 companies in South Korea as well as hundreds of responses from students in the U.S. to gauge how much an abusive supervisor impacts performance. Ranking interviewees based on whether they prioritize either career advancement or keeping their job, the researchers found that the former group of go-getters is more likely to be deterred by a rampaging boss.

That’s not in line with what the researchers expected. They initially predicted a bad boss would shape behavior for both those seeking to climb the career ladder and those focused on job security. But those who are motivated by advancement are “strongly affected” by toxic management and cut back on “taking-charge behavior,” while the other group was more likely to continue taking charge. “That’s a very surprising finding,” researcher Howie Xu said.

The researchers partly attribute these contrasting responses to the way these groups perceive threats. While an advancement-focused employee might feel a bad boss has a say in what they desire, like a promotion, those who care more about holding onto their job might feel the opposite; that HR or their boss's boss may have more of an impact on who gets fired than their actual manager does.

Since a worker prioritizing job security is likely not as invested in career growth if they're just clocking in for a check, they're probably able to shake off any toxicity as long they still have their job. On the other hand, workers focused on career goals might feel more invested in their interactions as part of their advancement and therefore more deterred by a boss's toxicity.
The rise of the ‘accidental manager’

Bad bosses come in all shapes and sizes—and they're not always so obvious. “They’re savvy, so they don’t explode,” Grace Lordan, an economist at the London School of Economics, told Fortune. “They’re much more quiet, and the people who they don’t like, they tend to ignore, isolate, and exclude.”

She added that these bosses can fall under three prototypes; the egoist, mediocre manager, or overly nice boss. It seems as if universally no one enjoys them; Xu's study found that employees from different cultures had virtually identical responses to abusive management. The authors attribute that to globalization, or a sign that this is a universal trait that exists across many different cultures.

“Thankfully, abusive supervision isn’t too common, but when it happens it leaves employees far less likely to take the initiative and work to improve business practices,” Xu adds.

Most of us have seen these bosses before; a poll from the Muse from earlier this year found that 64% of respondents experienced a toxic work environment, with many attributing it to their leaders and direct managers. That could partly be because managers are woefully unprepared and undertrained these days. A separate survey from the U.K. found that 82% of bosses are “accidental managers,” or employees who were promoted without proper training to manage. Those who found their manager ineffective reported less job satisfaction, motivation, and feelings of being valued than their peers who viewed their bosses as effective.

Caught in between workers and higher-ups during contentious return-to-office mandates, middle managers have often bit off more than they were trained to chew and are experiencing high levels of burnout. Perhaps a new wave of bad bosses has been created with accidental managers being ill-equipped to deal with the new way of working.

Now, some research suggests that teams who feel too comfortable at work won’t work as hard. But Xu’s study suggests that management has more to lose than they think if they act out. In reality, no one is motivated by toxic bosses—and go-getters are especially likely to go quiet when bosses’ bad behavior goes unchecked.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

'Extraterrestrials' return to Mexico's congress as journalist presses case for 'non-human beings'


Related video: Mexican Congress holds second UFO session featuring Peruvian mummies (Daily Mail)  Duration 2:51 View on Watch

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The lower chamber of Mexico’s congress once again turned to spectacle Tuesday, devoting hours of its time to a controversial character who pressed the case for “non-human beings” he said were found in Peru.

Less than three weeks after Category 5 Hurricane Otis devastated Acapulco, a port of nearly 1 million people, the Chamber of Deputies spent more than three hours listening to journalist José Jaime Maussan and his group of Peruvian doctors.

Maussan and some Mexican lawmakers became the subject of international ridicule in September when he presented two boxes with supposed mummies found in Peru. He along with others claimed they were “non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution.”

In 2017, Maussan made similar claims in Peru, and a report by that country’s prosecutor’s office found the bodies were actually “recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin.”

The report added the figures were almost certainly human-made and that “they are not the remains of ancestral aliens that they have tried to present.” The bodies were not publicly unveiled at the time, so it is unclear if they are the same as those presented to Mexico’s congress.

On Tuesday, Dr. Daniel Mendoza showed photographs and x-rays of what he said was a “non-human being.” Maussan said it was a “new species” as it did not have lungs or ribs.

Lawmaker Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, from the governing party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said “all ideas and all proposals will always be welcome to debate them, hear them to agree with or not.”

Mexico UFOs
A screen shows what Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan claims are extraterrestrial life forms at the Chamber of Deputies in Mexico City, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. Mexican legislators held another hearing dedicated to the potential for extraterrestrial life forms and UFOs following a controversial spectacle in September in which Maussan displayed what he said were "non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution."
(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Controversial 'alien' bodies return to Mexico's congress as 'expert' testifies again on discovery
Associated Press
Wed, November 8, 2023

Controversial 'alien' bodies return to Mexico's congress as 'expert' testifies again on discovery

The lower chamber of Mexico’s congress once again turned to spectacle on Tuesday, devoting hours of its time to a controversial figure who pressed the case for the fossiled remains of "non-human beings" he said were found in Peru.

Less than three weeks after Category 5 Hurricane Otis devastated Acapulco, a port of nearly 1 million people, the Chamber of Deputies spent more than three hours listening to JoséJaime Maussanand his group of Peruvian doctors.

Maussan and some Mexican lawmakers became the subject of international ridicule in September when he presented two boxes with supposed mummies found in Peru.

1,000-year-old fossils of 'alien' corpses displayed in Mexico's Congress as UFO expert testifies

He along with others claimed they were "non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution".

In 2017, Maussan made similar claims in Peru, and a report by that country’s prosecutor’s office found the bodies were actually "recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin".

Mexico's controversial 1,000-year-old 'alien' bodies undergo lab tests

Acapulco was built to withstand earthquakes, but not Hurricane Otis' destructive winds – how building codes failed this resort city

Michel Bruneau, University at Buffalo
Tue, November 7, 2023 

Acapulco's beachfront condo towers were devastated by Hurricane Otis. Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP via Getty Images

Acapulco wasn’t prepared when Hurricane Otis struck as a powerful Category 5 storm on Oct. 25, 2023. The short notice as the storm rapidly intensified over the Pacific Ocean wasn’t the only problem – the Mexican resort city’s buildings weren’t designed to handle anything close to Otis’ 165 mph winds.

While Acapulco’s oceanfront high-rises were built to withstand the region’s powerful earthquakes, they had a weakness.

Since powerful hurricanes are rare in Acapulco, Mexico’s building codes didn’t require that their exterior materials be able to hold up to extreme winds. In fact, those materials were often kept light to help meet earthquake building standards.


Otis’ powerful winds ripped off exterior cladding and shattered windows, exposing bedrooms and offices to the wind and rain. The storm took dozens of lives and caused billions of dollars in damage.

A US$130 million luxury condo building on the beach in Acapulco before Hurricane Otis struck on Oct. 25, 2023. Hamid Arabzadeh, PhD., P.Eng.

The same Acapulco condo tower after Hurricane Otis. Hamid Arabzadeh, PhD., P.Eng.

I have worked on engineering strategies to enhance disaster resilience for over three decades and recently wrote a book, “The Blessings of Disaster,” about the gambles humans take with disaster risk and how to increase resilience. Otis provided a powerful example of one such gamble that exists when building codes rely on probabilities that certain hazards will occur based on recorded history, rather than considering the severe consequences of storms that can devastate entire cities.
The fatal flaw in building codes

Building codes typically provide “probabilistic-based” maps that specify wind speeds that engineers must consider when designing buildings.

The problem with that approach lies in the fact that “probabilities” are simply the odds that extreme events of a certain size will occur in the future, mostly calculated based on past occurrences. Some models may include additional considerations, but these are still typically anchored in known experience.

This is all good science. Nobody argues with that. It allows engineers to design structures in accordance with a consensus on what are deemed acceptable return periods for various hazards, referring to the likelihood of those disasters occurring. Return periods are a somewhat arbitrary assessment of what is a reasonable balance between minimizing risk and keeping building costs reasonable.

However, probabilistic maps only capture the odds of the hazard occurring. A probabilistic map might specify a wind speed to consider for design, irrespective of whether that given location is a small town with a few hotels or a megapolis with high-rises and complex urban infrastructure. In other words, probabilistic maps do not consider the consequences when an extreme hazard exceeds the specified value and “all hell breaks loose.”
How probability left Acapulco exposed

According to the Mexican building code, hotels, condos and other commercial and office buildings in Acapulco must be designed to resist 88 mph winds, corresponding to the strongest wind likely to occur on average once every 50 years there. That’s a Category 1 storm.

A 200-year return period for wind is used for essential facilities, such as hospital and school buildings, corresponding to 118 mph winds. But over a building’s life span of, say, 50 years, that still leaves a 22% change that winds exceeding 118 mph will occur (yes, the world of statistics is that sneaky).

Mexico’s hurricane history in storm tracks. NOAA

A century of hurricane storm tracks near Acapulco show several offshore storms that brought strong winds and rain to the city, but few direct landfalls. Acapulco Bay is in the center of the map on the coast. Red, pink and purple lines are categories 3, 4 and 5, respectively. NOAA

The probability wind maps for both return periods show Acapulco experiences lower average wind speeds than much of the 400 miles of Mexican coast north of the city. Yet, Acapulco is a major city, with a metropolitan population of over 1 million. It also has more than 50 buildings taller than 20 stories, according to the SkyscraperPage, a database of skyscrapers, and it is the only city with buildings that tall along that stretch of the Pacific coast.

Designing for a 50-year return period in this case is questionable, as it implies a near 100% chance of encountering wind exceeding this design value for a building with a 50-year life span or greater.
Florida faces similiar challenges

The shortcomings of probabilistic-based maps that specify wind speeds have also been observed in the United States. For example, new buildings along most of Florida’s coast must be able to resist 140 mph winds or greater, but there are a few exceptions. One is the Big Bend area where Hurricane Idalia made landfall in 2023. Its design wind speed is about 120 mph instead.

A 2023 update to the Florida Building Code raised the minimum wind speed to approximately 140 mph in Mexico Beach, the Panhandle town that was devastated by Hurricane Michael in 2018. The Big Bend exception may be the next one to be eliminated.
Acapulco’s earthquake design weakness

A saving grace for Acapulco is that it is located in one of Mexico’s most active seismic risk zones – for example, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck nearby in 2021. As a result, the lateral-load-resisting structural systems in tall buildings there are designed to resist seismic forces that are generally larger than hurricane forces.

However, a drawback is that the larger the mass of a building, the larger the seismic forces the building must be designed to resist. Consequently, light materials were typically used for the cladding – the exterior surface of the building that protects it against the weather – because that translates into lower seismic forces. This light cladding was not able to withstand hurricane-force winds.

Had the cladding not failed, the full wind forces would have been transferred to the structural system, and the buildings would have survived with little or no damage.
A ‘good engineering approach’ to hazards

A better building code could go one step beyond “good science” probabilistic maps and adopt a “good engineering approach” by taking stock of the consequences of extreme events occurring, not just the odds that they will.

In Florida, the incremental cost of designing for wind speeds of 140 mph rather than 120 mph is marginal compared to total building cost, given that cladding able to resist more than 140 mph is already used in nearly all of the state. In Acapulco, with the spine of buildings already able to resist earthquake forces much larger than hurricane forces, designing cladding that can withstand stronger hurricane-level forces is likely to be an even smaller percentage of total project cost.

Someday, the way that design codes deal with extreme events such as hurricanes, not only in Mexico, will hopefully evolve to more broadly account for what is at risk at the urban scale. Unfortunately, as I explain in “The Blessings of Disaster,” we will see more extreme disasters before society truly becomes disaster resilient.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Michel Bruneau, University at Buffalo.

Read more:


Dreaming of beachfront real estate? Much of Florida’s coast is at risk of storm erosion that can cause homes to collapse, as Daytona just saw


Some coastal areas are more prone to devastating hurricanes – a meteorologist explains why

Michel Bruneau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.


Grieving Acapulco mother fears for future after breadwinner son's death in hurricane

Wed, November 8, 2023 

 Aftermath of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco

By Jose Luis Gonzalez

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - Since Hurricane Otis killed her fisherman son in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco last month, 69-year-old Manuela Garcia Estrada worries she will not be able to cope now that her main economic support is gone.

"He was the one who maintained me, he was the one who made sure I was well" said Garcia, fighting back tears as she took the body of her 47-year-old son, Hugo Sosa Garcia, for burial after he drowned in Acapulco bay during the storm.

Garcia, who has a surviving son who is disabled and cannot work, and another living elsewhere in Mexico, is one of thousands of Acapulco residents whose lives were shattered by Otis, the most powerful hurricane ever to strike the country's Pacific coast.

She, Hugo, her disabled son and two dogs shared a house which she said had been "completely destroyed" by Otis.

"How will I rebuild it, what am I going to do?" she asked.

Wreaking havoc in the city of nearly 900,000, Otis, a Category 5 hurricane, killed dozens of people and left thousands more without roofs over their heads. Dozens more are still missing. Some business leaders fear the city will not recover until 2025.

On Monday, dozens of people marched through central Mexico City to protest what they saw as a lack of government support after widespread looting, power cuts and destruction of ATMs left supplies of food and water running low in Acapulco.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched a $3.4 billion recovery plan and pledged to get Acapulco back on its feet quickly. A few major supermarkets have begun reopening.

The Army has vowed to massively ramp up its presence there, almost tripling the National Guard's deployment in Acapulco's home state of Guerrero.

Garcia said her son's death is still not sinking in.

"I'll be waiting for my son to come home," she said. "He always brought food: 'What do you want to eat today, mom?'"

(Reporting by Jose Luis Gonzalez; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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Mexico plans major military presence in Acapulco after hurricane
Reuters
Tue, November 7, 2023




MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government on Tuesday unveiled a plan to nearly triple the National Guard deployment in the state of Guerrero to massively ramp up security in Acapulco after the crime-plagued beach resort was devastated by a hurricane last month.

Hurricane Otis, the strongest to ever hit Mexico's Pacific coast, hammered Acapulco, killing dozens of people, causing billions of dollars in damage and sparking widespread looting.

The influx of National Guard troops to the stricken city will make Guerrero, which lies in southern Mexico, home to the biggest deployment of any state, the government said.

"This plan seeks to have the National Guard in the municipality of Acapulco permanently to continue guaranteeing security," Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said at a press conference with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

In Acapulco, the National Guard presence will increase from 360 members to 9,860, Sandoval said. Guerrero's total will rise to 14,620 from 5,120 at present.

The number is more than double the nearly 7,000 troops stationed in the violence-ravaged central state of Guanajuato, which has had the highest National Guard presence.

Mexico will set up 38 bases across Acapulco, a city of nearly 900,000 people, to house the troops.

Crime has for years been a blight on Acapulco, which in 2022 was among the 10 most violent cities in the world, according to data published by a Mexican civil society group, the Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice.

At times during the past dozens years the city has been the most violent in Mexico, according to the group. While its homicide rate has eased somewhat, recent months have seen a slew of violent incidents, including a journalist's brazen murder and the deadly ambush of 13 police officers near the city.

The creation of the National Guard has been a pillar of Lopez Obrador's security strategy and a target of critics who argue his policies have failed to make Mexico safer, pointing to record numbers of homicides on his watch.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)





Mexico Hurricane Otis
 Soldiers guard the streets while residents take items from local stores after Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico, Oct. 26, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

Two weeks after Hurricane Otis, Acapulco shadow of former self
Samir Tounsi
Tue, November 7, 2023

Saul Parra is searching for his brother Fernando, a boat crew member who disappeared during Hurricane Otis (FRANCISCO ROBLES)


Families search for missing relatives as shops and bars gradually reopen -- two weeks after a devastating hurricane, Mexico's beachside city of Acapulco is struggling to regain a semblance of normality.

A few bathers soak up the sun on Manzanillo beach, near residential buildings whose windows were smashed by winds that reached 165 miles (270 kilometers) per hour.

At the feet of the 27-floor Marena residence in the exclusive Punta Diamante district, mattresses and cushions lie amid debris on the beach.

Inspired by the shape of a ship's sail filled with wind, its luxury apartments once sold for more than one and a half million dollars each, but they have been left uninhabitable by the fury of Otis.

Many businesses have not only been damaged but also looted.

Schools remain closed until further notice.

In Acapulco Bay, navy divers search for missing people among destroyed or submerged yachts.

At least 48 were killed and more than 30 are still unaccounted for after Hurricane Otis came ashore in the early hours of October 25 as a scale-topping category 5 storm, according to authorities.

Relatives of four crew members from the Litos yacht who disappeared reunite by the sea for the first time.

"We know nothing. I think the government is hiding the truth from us," Saul Parra says next to a missing persons poster for his brother Fernando.

"It's time to raise our voice. Time is passing. If we have a chance of finding them alive, it's slipping through our hands," he adds.

- Aid efforts -

On the city's main beachfront avenue, dozens of residents queue for a free dish of meat and rice.

"Every day we prepare around 4,000 meals," says Brian Chavez, 22, a volunteer for World Central Kitchen, an organization that provides food during humanitarian crises.

Elsewhere, the navy distributes toilet paper -- part of a wider aid effort by Mexico's authorities.

A few meters away, a taco restaurant has resumed service.

The kebab-style meat rotates on a spit as Mexican music plays in the background.

On Monday, a major supermarket near the beach reopened its doors, allowing customers to enter in groups of 10, under the control of the army.

"I'm very happy to be able to obtain basic necessities," says Yameli, a mother who came with her two daughters.

"We bought tomatoes, vegetables, ham, some fruit juice. Some products were missing, like tuna and bread," she says.

In the middle-class Progreso district, away from the seafront, trash cans pile up on the street in the humid heat.

"It's starting to stink. They need to be collected urgently" says resident Laura Salvide, who fears the insanitary conditions will cause outbreaks of disease.

A lack of drinking water is another problem, she complains.

A few streets away, garbage collectors are at work.

- Guarding neighborhoods -

Tangled power lines hang from pylons in the city, ripped down by the hurricane.

Teams from the state electricity company have been hard at work for the past fortnight repairing damage.

Even so, part of Acapulco is still plunged into darkness after nightfall, including Campeche Street, where residents have made barricades with wooden pallets and corrugated metal sheets.

"We do it for our safety," says Alfredo Villalobos.

Some residents in the city have even been seen guarding their districts with machetes and baseball bats.

On Monday morning, at the other end of Campeche Street, a decapitated body was found, according to an AFP photographer.

Suspicion quickly fell on criminal gangs who have been settling scores for years in the region, tarnishing Acapulco's fun-loving reputation.

Down by beach, a night-time bar pumps out loud music on an unlit street.

Rubble is still piled up in front of the establishment.

The city's nightlife is gradually reawakening, but it is not the same as before Otis.

"We have a really reduced menu," says Andres Boleo.

He says he makes a round trip of hundreds of miles (kilometers) to collect supplies for his snack bar.

Despite the difficulties, Boleo is sure of one thing: "Acapulco will always be Acapulco."

Canadian Wildlife Sanctuary's Video of Wolf Acting Silly Reminds People of a Famous Meme

Gabrielle LaFrank
Wed, November 8, 2023

 
Denis Pepin/Shutterstock


Art and media are entertaining, without a doubt, but they're also important tools that people use to navigate the world. Just look at memes, for example! On the surface, they're a great way to make a friend laugh or feel seen, but they also say a lot about the state of the world at the time they went viral.

One 2013 meme is resurfacing thanks to an adorable wolf video from a Canadian wildlife sanctuary, and no one is complaining one bit. The video in question comes from Miller Zoo, a wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation center in Quebec. In the clip, a zookeeper gives a close-up view of a white wolf acting silly and trying to play, which is something I've never seen before! LMAO! This dog-like wolf is absolutely stunning, but it's hard to fully take in his beauty when he's busy showing his booty to the camera. He's got more personality than he knows what to do with, though, and it could put a smile on anyone's face to see this wild animal acting so silly.

Related: Wolf Dogs Playing in a Grassy Meadow is Like a Scene Straight Out of a Movie

But the star of this video wasn't even present--it was fictional wolf Moon Moon! Dozens of commenters left hilarious anecdotes about the popular meme, and it unlocked a whole section of my memories I thought I forgot.

Commenter @splitz1998 shared, "my favorite part of the Moon Moon memes is that it was just some random person's "wolf name" from one of those Facebook posts, and everyone ran miles with it." LOL--that's so true! The name 'Moon Moon' came from someone's 'wolf name' infographic, and the rest is history!

"It’s insane how this activated Moon Moon memories for everyone," agreed viewer @space_ranger_ricky. "I see wolf posts but they never remind me of Moon Moon except this one." Isn't it wild? It must be the sanctuary wolf's playful posture and silly behavior that helped connect the dots, but whatever it may be--I'm glad to revisit this giggle-worthy meme!

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Beyond Meat struggles to rein in US faux meat demand slide

Story by Reuters • 


Products from Beyond Meat Inc, the vegan burger maker, are shown for sale at a market in Encinitas, California, U.S., June 5, 2019. REUTERS/© Thomson Reuters

(Reuters) -Beyond Meat missed market expectations for quarterly revenue and posted a wider-than-expected loss on Wednesday, hurt by relentless weakness in demand for plant-based meat in the United States.

The company has been offering steeper discounts, as consumer sentiment about plant-based meat and its health benefits took a beating.

In a post-earnings call, Beyond Meat executives said the percentage of people in the U.S. who believe plant-based meats are healthy is likely to have dropped further this year, after falling 38% in 2022 from 50% in 2020, as per data from trade association Food Marketing Institute.

Net revenue for the third quarter fell 8.7% to $75.3 million, missing analysts' average estimate of $85.4 million, as per LSEG data.

Still, easing input costs, including that of manufacturing, materials and logistics, helped the company post a year-on-year improvement in gross margins.

The company's shares, which have fallen almost 45% so far this year, fell marginally in extended trade.

"We are disappointed by our overall results as we continue to experience worsening sector-specific and broader consumer headwinds," said Beyond Meat's CEO Ethan Brown.

Momentum in international retail and foodservice net revenues continued, while retail volume in the U.S. was bogged down by soft demand and higher discounts, falling 18.8% in the reported quarter.

"Consumers in the U.S. haven't fully warmed up to plant-based protein alternatives like Beyond Meat... because the products ... don't live up to shoppers' standards for taste and flavor," said Rachel Wolff, senior analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Earlier this month, Beyond Meat trimmed its annual revenue forecast, and announced fresh job cuts as part of a cost-reduction plan.

For the period ended Sept. 30, Beyond Meat posted a loss of $1.09 per share, compared with market expectations of a loss of 89 cents per share.

(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

Thousands of people are reportedly lining up to have a portion of their skull removed and one of Elon Musk's brain chips implanted

Grace Kay
Wed, November 8, 2023

Thousands of people are interested in becoming Neuralink patients, a Bloomberg report says.


Elon Musk's startup received FDA approval earlier this year to start human trials.


The brain-chip startup hopes to implant a device that acts as a "Fitbit in your skull."

Thousands of people have expressed interest in receiving one of Neuralink's brain implants, a recent Bloomberg report from one of Elon Musk's biographers, Ashlee Vance, says.

Vance, who said he visited Neuralink's facilities 10 times in three years, said the company had yet to implant its device in a human but aimed to operate on 11 people next year and more than 22,000 by 2030.

Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration gave Neuralink, which Musk cofounded in 2016, approval to launch human trials of its device that Musk has described as a "Fitbit in your skull." The FDA had previously rejected Neuralink's bid for human testing in March over safety concerns, Reuters reported, including that the wires connected to the brain chip could move within a subject's head or that the chip could overheat.

In September, the company began recruiting for its first human trial. Neuralink said in a blog post that it was looking for people who had paralysis in all four limbs because of a spinal-cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The company says it hopes to eventually make a device that will create a sort of symbiosis between humans and machines and will allow people to send messages or play games using only their thoughts. But first, the company says it hopes to help people with neurological disorders.

Vance, who authored the 2015 biography "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future," said in his report that despite "an outpouring of interest from thousands of prospective patients," the company was still looking for its first volunteer or "someone willing to have a chunk of their skull removed by a surgeon so a large robot can insert a series of electrodes and superthin wires into their brain."

Musk's biographer said it would take a "couple of hours" for a surgeon to perform the craniectomy and then about 25 minutes for the robot to insert the device, along with its ultrathin array of about 64 threads. He said the device would replace the portion of the skull that had been removed. Vance added that the threads were about one-fourteenth the width of a single strand of human hair.

The chip is designed to sit behind the ear while electrodes are threaded into the brain.

Neuralink/YouTube

Vance wrote that Neuralink had done 155 implantation surgeries using the robot on a variety of animal test subjects, including pigs and monkeys. But, he said, in typical Musk fashion, the billionaire had continued to push for the robot to move faster, as well as for the surgery to be performed without human help.

A spokesperson for Neuralink did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

The biographer said Musk had pointed to the need to combat competition from other brain-computer startups such as Synchron and Onward, which had already begun human trials.

"They are currently kicking our ass," Musk said after Synchron implanted its first device in a US patient in July 2022. (In December 2021, one of Synchron's patients in Australia was the first person to send a tweet using only his thoughts.)

Vance quoted the billionaire saying Neuralink needed to pick up its pace "like the world is coming to an end" to keep up with artificial intelligence and the possibility of an AI being that wouldn't be friendly to humans.

Yet while Musk's "maniacal sense of urgency" may work at Tesla or SpaceX — where he has initiated sprints and slept on the factory floor to meet deadlines — at least one Neuralink executive has taken a note of caution.

"We can't blow up the first three. That's not an option here," Shivon Zilis, Neuralink's director of special projects and the mother of two of Musk's children, told Vance in a reference to SpaceX's first three rockets, which exploded.

Elon Musk's plan to implant chips into people's brains shares amusing similarities to a 2015 British spy movie featuring an eccentric billionaire played by Samuel L. Jackson

Pete Syme
Wed, November 8, 2023 


Neuralink's human trials have had thousands of applicants, per Bloomberg.


Elon Musk's brain chips have amusing similarities to the plot of 2015 movie "Kingsman: The Secret Service."


In it, Samuel L. Jackson plays an eccentric billionaire who tries to control the world using neural implants.

Thousands of people are clamoring to have an eccentric billionaire implant a microchip into their brain.

That's not just what's going in real life with Elon Musk's Neuralink, it's also the plot of the 2015 spy caper "Kingsman: The Secret Service," which shares a bunch of amusing similarities to Musk's real life plans.

Neuralink received approval for human trials in May. And according to a Bloomberg report from Musk biographer Ashlee Vance, thousands of people are lining up for the opportunity.

The process will involve the patient having "a chunk of their skull removed by a surgeon so a large robot can insert a series of electrodes and superthin wires into their brain," Vance wrote.

"Kingsman: The Secret Service," which stars Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, and Taron Egerton, features a similar neural implant as a key plot point.

In the movie — which parodies British spy films like the "James Bond" series — eccentric tech tycoon Richmond Valentine, played by Jackson, announces a plan to give everyone in the world SIM cards with free phone and internet access.

As the movie progresses, it transpires that Jackson's character can control the SIMs remotely, and wants to put into motion a Malthusian plan to cut the increasing global population by triggering a signal from the chips that makes their users kill each other.

It turns out that chips have been implanted into the brains of the global elite, from wealthy executives to the head of the secret service, with the elites signing up to Valentine's plan in exchange for protection from his deadly signal via the chips.

But the plan is scuppered as the secret agent Eggsy, played by Egerton — a member of the organization "Kingsman" — sneaks into Valentine's bunker, while another agent hacks into the implants and makes them explode, killing the elite.

The film, which grossed over $400 million worldwide, came out two years before Neuralink was founded — though it seems unlikely Musk took any inspiration from a mid-budget action movie for his plans.

And Musk won't look to ape Jackson's fictional Valentine by controlling people's minds with Neuralink's chips, because brain-computer interfaces don't actually allow that. Instead, the brain controls the computer, and its possible applications for those with diseases like ALS could be significant.

The two also differ in cutting the world's population. Musk is certainly not a believer in depopulation, and has frequently stated his belief that the planet needs more people on it, not less.

Neuralink is also evidently wary of any potential accidents.

Shivon Zilis, Neuralink's director of special projects and mother of twins with Musk, joked with Vance — referring to a number of failed rocket launches for SpaceX, another of Musk's companies: "We can't blow up the first three. That's not an option here."
Musk has long been jokingly compared to a supervillain

Internet users have long joked that Musk holds many similarities with science fiction and action movie villains, often comparing him to the likes of Hank Scorpio, a cartoonishly evil villain masquerading as a legitimate businessman in "The Simpsons."

In 2019, Musk even jokingly agreed that he was actually Scorpio in a tweet responding to discussions about a flamethrower he put into production via his business, The Boring Company.

Parallels between Musk and Jackson's Valentine have also been made frequently, with memes comparing the pair being shared sporadically online for several years.

Several Reddit threads over the years have made tongue-in-cheek comparisons between Musk and Jackson's character, sharing similarities between the pair.

Musk is even seemingly briefly mentioned in the movie, when Valentine speaks to someone called "E" on the phone to ask to borrow a satellite.


Neuralink Ready to Start Letting Robots Implant Chips into Human Brains

Noor Al-Sibai
Wed, November 8, 2023


Elon Musk's Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) company is apparently ready to begin its robot-assisted brain chip implantation — despite widespread attention on the gruesome fates that befell monkeys it experimented with early on.

As Bloomberg reports, the company hasn't announced exactly when it plans to do its first implantation feautiring its bespoke robot surgeon, but Musk is pushing for it to be as soon as possible.

One obstacle is because it still hasn't yet found its ideal volunteer, despite an apparent wellspring of interest stemming from its approval for human trials from the Food and Drug Administration in May and subsequent announcement in September that it was recruiting its very first human subjects.

Neuralink's prime candidate for its first implant would be someone under 40 who's paralyzed in all four of their limbs — and, of course, who is actually willing to have a chunk of their skull removed and replaced with the quarter-sized implant that will, the company hopes, be able to collect data from their brains.

As Musk biographer Ashlee Vance points out in that Bloomberg story, thousands of people have expressed interest in becoming the first person to get the Musk brain chip implanted in their heads.

On the opposite end of the hype spectrum, however, is the unsettling recent spate of reports about the company's experiments on rhesus macaques, many of which would become visibly distressed, attempt to hurt themselves, become severely ill, or straight up die after the implantation.

Vance insists that during his visits to Neuralink's Fremont, California facilities, conditions are far better than one might expect from the recent spate of grisly reports about the horrific fates that befell the rhesus macaque monkeys — and that moreover, the company has emphasized all those terrible stories were from public records requests gleaned from Neuralink's earliest experiments.

Per Vance's reporting, the monkeys at the Fremont facility — which he says are the same group he's seen over the past three years — are now in good health, with some having newer models implanted in their brains, a few being retired to sanctuaries, and just one having to be euthanized. Along with the computer games the monkeys play "when they feel like it" to assist in the mind-reading aspect of the experiments, the macaques also have large playpens full of toys and fake trees, the reporter explains, and they get to watch TV and listen to music, too.

While the portrait Vance paints is indeed pretty adorable — albeit admittedly surreal — it's impossible to ignore the reports about what happened to the other Neuralink monkeys.

As Wired reported last month, the brain of one female macaque literally ruptured after the chip was implanted. Instead of euthanizing her when they realized what was happening, the UC Davis scientists who were experimenting on the primate on behalf of Neuralink instead left her alive to see what happened. After she died, an autopsy revealed that the chip had leaked fluid into the monkey's brain that caused it to become so inflamed, it protruded from the back of her skull.

Neuralink claims, per Bloomberg, that this incident and all the others that have made for very unsettling reading in recent months were the result of human error rather than faults with the equipment itself.

Whether or not that's true, it's very hard to "square away," as Vance puts it, the idea that soon, Neuralink will be having robots place its implants into humans so soon after all those terrifying tales dropped.

But that may just be science in the age of Musk.

"We can’t blow up the first three," Shivon Zilis, Neuralink’s director of special projects and the mother of two of Musk's children, told Vance in a reference to SpaceX's exploded Starships attemps. "That’s not an option here."

More on Neuralink: Elon Musk Says Neuralink Tests Only on Terminally Ill Monkeys

Experts warn the program Mike Johnson used to keep himself from watching porn is akin to 'a modern day wiretap program'

Madison Hall
Wed, November 8, 2023

In 2022, Rep. Mike Johnson said he uses software that monitors his computer and phone.


The main use of the service, Covenant Eyes, is to stop its customers from viewing porn.


Experts said it's "frightening" and "terrifying" that Johnson installed the programs on his devices.

Experts told Insider it's "frightening" and "terrifying" that Speaker Mike Johnson installed monitoring programs on his devices to keep him and his son from watching porn as it sets him up for possible extortion attempts.

Over the weekend, a video emerged showing Johnson telling a crowd at a church in 2022 that he and his son used a software called "Covenant Eyes," which monitors everything a user does and alerts their "accountability partner" if they view anything it deems objectionable. Johnson said his accountability partner was his then-17-year-old son.

"What it does real simply is it has an algorithm and software — it's way above my head how it works," Johnson said. "But it scans — you obviously opt into it — but it scans all the activity on your phone or your devices, your laptop, tablet, what have you. We do all of it."

According to Covenant Eyes' website, the program uses artificial intelligence to monitor everything on the user's screen and send screenshots to its servers for review. It only does so, the website says, after reducing the image in size and blurring it, "making the text illegible in many, but not all cases."

Michael Coates, a former chief information security officer at Twitter and head of security at Mozilla, said he thinks it's "very concerning" to hear that a member of Congress used the platform. Johnson's office did not respond to Insider's questions to learn if he still uses it and if it's ever been installed on his government computer or cell phone.

"This is essentially a modern-day wiretap program built and developed by a private corporation that is installed on his personal laptop — and we can imagine his personal phone — capturing essentially everything that may be happening on his device," Coates said.

It's a problem, Coates said, if Covenant Eyes or a similar program is installed on any of Johnson's work-related computers or phones, especially now that he's speaker, given his proximity to classified information and government secrets. While the company says it blurs the images when sending them to its servers, he said there's no way for the user to know if that's actually happening.

Even if the program's only installed on Johnson's personal computer and phone, using the program as a member of Congress still raises many red flags, Coates said, as "there's still a wealth of private information for the speaker that's being captured by the software: his communication with his friends, family, business associates."

Yotam Ophir, a professor who studies misinformation and extremism at the University of Buffalo, echoed Coates' concerns. He said it's "frightening" that "a person so high in the chain of command is allowing his computer or phone information to be constantly scraped and stored somewhere."

"What if the data are being stolen or leaked," Ophir asked. "What if the Russians get their hands on this data? They have a history of hacking into our politicians' emails."

Coates said there's no way to guarantee that Covenant Eyes as a company has security measures in place to prevent such attempts from hostile nations.

"So you can imagine this company is now immediately a target of foreign nation-states," Coates said. "We could probably assume that if a foreign entity such as Russia, China, North Korea wanted to breach their security, they probably could. So now they have essentially inside access to the wiretapping software that's installed on the speaker's devices, which is terrifying."

"Ironically," Ophir said, "it reminds me of how the Republicans doubled down on Hillary's private servers back in today and framing her as a threat to national security. But now you have this guy just sharing his data."

Covenant Eyes did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider

China Says It Will Roll Out Humanoid Robots by 2025

Rachel Cormack

Tue, November 7, 2023 



China is hoping to welcome robotkind in just two years’ time.

The country plans to produce its first humanoid robots by 2025, according to an ambitious blueprint published by the Ministry of Industry and Information (MITT) Technology last week. The MITT says the advanced bipedal droids have the power to reshape the world, carrying out menial, repetitive tasks in farms, factories, and houses to alleviate our workload.

“They are expected to become disruptive products after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles,” the document states.

The government will accelerate the development of the robots by funding more young companies in the field, as reported by Bloomberg. Fourier Intelligence is one such Chinese startup hoping to start mass-producing general-purpose humanoid robots by the end of this year. The Fourier GR-1 measures five feet and four inches and weighs around 121 pounds. With 40 joints, the bot reportedly has “unparalleled agility” human-like movement. It can also walk at roughly 3 mph and complete basic tasks.

The Fourier GR-1.

China isn’t the only country working on our future robot helpers, of course. In the U.S., Tesla is continuing to refine Optimus. The bipedal humanoid robot has progressed rapidly since the first shaky prototype was revealed at the marque’s AI day in 2022. It can now do yoga, in fact. Tesla has yet to announce a firm timetable for when Optimus will hit the market, but CEO Elon Musk has previously said that the $20,000 robot could be ready in three to five years.

Agility Robotics is another U.S. company with “building robots for good.” It opened a robot manufacturing facility in Oregon earlier this year that can produce more than 10,000 Digit droids per year. It also recently announced that Amazon will begin testing Digit for use in their operations.

Meanwhile, Boston Dynamics—makers of Spot, the $75,000 robotic dog—has built another decidedly agile bipedal robot. Atlas showed it could move various obstacles earlier this year, after nailing a parkour course in 2021. Boston Dynamic’s Atlas is a research platform and not available for purchase, but the robot does show the U.S. is on par with China in terms of droid design.

OPTIMUS NOT YET PRIME

Tesla is hiring a bunch of designers so it can start selling humanoid robots by 2027

Jyoti Mann
Updated Tue, November 7, 2023 


Elon Musk's desire to launch Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, by 2027 may be closer to reality.


Tesla's website shows more than 50 adverts for roles with Tesla Bot in the title.


With some competitors testing bots in pilot studies, Tesla is seemingly ramping up its own efforts.

Elon Musk has high aspirations for Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus.

The Tesla CEO said at its annual AI Day last year that it could be ready to take orders in three to five years, per Reuters, and that it's "expected to cost much less than a car," and "probably less than $20,000."

It seems that the billionaire is hiring more people to work on the project and make his vision a reality. Tesla's careers page shows there are more than 50 jobs advertised that have "Tesla Bot," also known as Optimus, in the job title, as EV news site Electrek reported.

Some of the roles listed, which are to be based in Palo Alto, California, include "Humanoid Controls Engineer, Tesla Bot," "Systems Design & Integration Engineer, Tesla Bot," and various other Tesla Bot engineers.

Musk said in May that the "Optimus Team is making excellent progress" in an X post. Tesla then posted a progress update of Optimus in a YouTube video last month with accompanying text saying it's "now capable of self-calibrating its arms and legs."

The video shows the robot sorting building blocks by color using its hands, vision, and Tesla's on-board neural net. The clip ends with Optimus doing some yoga stretches.

But with some US-based competitors already testing humanoid robots in warehouses, Tesla may have some catching up to do.

Texas-based Apptronik launched its robot Apollo in August, which is more than feet high and can carry up to 55 pounds.

Jeff Cardenas, cofounder and CEO of Apptronik, told Insider that it had deployed one or two units of Apollo at each customer site. He added that the company, which signed a partnership with NASA last year, was focused on "improving the technology and then we'll move beyond that."

"We're not ready to make public announcements yet, but our customers are in retail, manufacturing, and pure-play third-party logistics groups," he said.

Similarly, Agility Robotics is building a factory in Oregon and its robot Digit is being tested in an Amazon research-and-development center near Seattle.

Tesla didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of normal working hours.

Elon Musk says AI will create ‘universal high income’ and eliminate the need for jobs

Joshua Hawkins
Tue, November 7, 2023 


AI could make us all rich, or at least that seems to be what Elon Musk is suggesting. While speaking at the U.K.’s AI Safety Summit last week, Elon Musk told U.K. Prime Minister that he believes AI will replace the need for all jobs. While some have latched on to this idea from a doomer perspective, Musk says it will introduce a “universal high income” (via Fortune).

But what does that mean? Well, chances are you’ve heard of universal basic income or UBI. This essentially means that everyone gets a standard payment as a resident of the government, regardless of their employment. It’s an idea that has been touted several times over the years and has even gained some traction in a few places.

But what Musk proposes here is that AI won’t steal our jobs and make us all really poor. Instead, it’ll take our jobs and make us all better off with an AI-driven universal high income. Instead of simply redistributing some wealth through basic income for everyone, Musk’s idea sounds like it would see us all living in an “age of abundance.”

Elon Musk

But how does that work? Well, that’s unclear. Exactly what Musk means by universal high income is impossible to know unless he clarifies the idea. We know that it won’t be the same as universal basic income, but if Musk’s idea gives people more money, then it might meet more resistance than UBI currently does – which sees a lot of arguments against it because it would make people lazy because they wouldn’t have to work.

There are, of course, a lot of people who see the pros and cons of universal income all over the world, and while more people are warming up to it, the idea that we’ll jump to a universal high income because of AI is kind of strange to hear from Musk, especially after he joined others in signing a letter to pause development of powerful AI.

If we are indeed going to reach a point where universal income is enacted, and AI has taken all our jobs, that means we’ll need AI more powerful than ChatGPT to do it. How exactly this new stance lines up with Musk’s previous stance is unclear. Maybe he’s changed his mind.

 Humans had long-range weapons — that could fly 250 feet — 31,000 years ago, study says

Brendan Rascius
Tue, November 7, 2023 


Photo from the University of Liège

About 31,000 years ago — long before the birth of civilization — humans were constructing long-range weapons to hunt prey.

The weapons, known as thrusters, could be used to launch arrow-like objects over 250 feet, according to a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The existence of thrusters has long been known, but because they were fashioned from organic material — like wood — few have been found. Typically, only stone tips stand the test of time, and these are difficult to attribute to specific weapons.

Because of this, there’s been widespread disagreement within the scientific community about how long thrusters have been in use.

Now, researchers have used a pioneering technique to precisely date them, according to a Nov. 2 news release from the University of Liège in Belgium.

Researchers fastened replicas of flint points found at archaeological sites to various weapons, including spears, bows and thrusters. The weapons were then fired, and the flint points were analyzed for damage.

After being launched, each weapon left a unique mark on the flint tips, allowing researchers to pinpoint them to specific weapons.

These replica tips were then compared to 31,000-year-old flint tips found at an archaeological site along the banks of the Haine River in Belgium. The replica tips launched from thrusters unmistakably matched the ancient tips, researchers said.

This discovery places the invention of thrusters back earlier than previously thought, researchers said.