Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalThe Muslim Doctor Behind the First Cocaine-laced Pig-to-Human Heart Transplant
When Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin was growing up in the seaside city of Karachi in Pakistan, the word “pig” was taboo at home. Mentioning it even accidentally would have him punished and told to wash his mouth.
“My mother used to make me gargle,” Mohiuddin told VICE World News. “It was a big no-no in my family. It was forbidden in our home.” Mohiuddin would even accompany his father and brother to hunt wild pigs outside the bustling metropolis, in rural areas of the Sindh province.
Fast-forward decades and now the doctor is one of the pioneers behind the first genetically modified pig heart to be transplanted into a human body.
The groundbreaking surgery took place in the first week of the year at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Mohiuddin is their director of cardiac xenotransplantation, the process of transplanting a living heart from one species to another.
Led by Mohiuddin and Bartley P. Griffith, the director of the center’s cardiac transplant program, the latest procedure used a heart from a genetically altered pig supplied by Swedish biotech company Revivicor, and a rare immunosuppressive agent. The recipient of the heart is a 57-year-old man, currently in recovery.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/88g5ya/muslim-doctor-first-pig-to-human-heart-transplant-cocaine
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Please do not use this thread to bash religion or argue "animal rights". Thank you.
'People Need to Know She Sucks': Kyrsten Sinema's Volunteers, Ex-Staff Are Fed Up
When Maria-Elena Dunn first met Kyrsten Sinema, she said she was elated.
Dunn, a leader in the local chapter of the Indivisible progressive activist group in Prescott, Arizona, was introduced to Sinema at a campaign event and was blown away by the Senate candidate’s poise and her impressive life story. Her group hosted Sinema multiple times for events. Dunn volunteered, by her estimation, for more than 100 hours to elect Sinema and other Democrats that election cycle.
“I was very impressed. I had literature, I did canvassing for her, I contributed, I campaigned. We did everything we possibly could to get her elected. We were very excited about her. We knew she was a Democrat who had centrist tendencies, and that wasn’t a bad thing. Here in Arizona and especially our area, you have to be realistic over who you could elect. We were thrilled. She seemed like the real thing,” she told VICE News.
But now?
“I’m livid. I can only call her a turncoat,” Dunn said. “I feel betrayed.”
Sinema’s Wednesday vote against changing the filibuster, which kept the 60-vote margin for most major bills and effectively killed Democrats’ efforts to pass voting rights legislation, is the latest in a long line of votes that have enraged and upset some of the people who worked hard to put her in office. Dunn said for her, it was the “last straw.”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3nzay/kyrsten-sinema-volunteers-staffers-feel-betrayed
A Judge Tried to Deny a Teen's Abortion Partly Because of Her GPA
A Florida circuit judge tried to block a 17-year-old high school student from getting an abortion because, in part, the judge thought her GPA was too low.
The 17-year-old, known as “Jane Doe” in court papers, successfully appealed the circuit judge’s ruling this week. In a 2-1 ruling in the Florida Second District Court of Appeal, the panel of judges found that Doe was mature enough to earn what’s known as a “judicial bypass,” an arduous legal process that lets minors get abortions without involving their parents.
In his original ruling, Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Jared E. Smith focused on the fact that Doe had originally said she made “B” grades, but her current GPA is 2.0.
“Clearly, a ‘B’ average would not equate to a 2.0 GPA,” Smith wrote. Doe’s “testimony evinces either a lack of intelligence or credibility, either of which weigh against a finding of maturity pursuant to the statute.”
But a ruling written by Judge Darryl Casanueva and joined by Judge Susan Rothstein-Youakim pointed out that if Doe is making “Bs,” then her current GPA may not reflect her newer grades. And, in any case, “we observe a ‘C’ average demonstrates average intelligence for a high school student,” Casanueva wrote. “The evidence certainly did not show that her overall intelligence was ‘less than average.’”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/akv7xg/judge-abortion-gpa
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Her current GPA couldn't possibly reflect her emotional stress due to all this......Nah....
Texas went big on oil. Earthquakes followed.
It’s been a big winter for earthquakes in West Texas. A string of small tremors rocked Midland County on December 15 and 16, followed a week later by a magnitude-4.5 quake, the second-strongest to hit the region in the last decade. Then a magnitude-4.2 quake shook the town of Stanton and another series of small earthquakes hit nearby Reeves County.
That’s an unsettling pattern for a state that, until recently, wasn’t an earthquake state at all. Before 2008, Texans experienced just one or two perceptible earthquakes a year. But Texas now sees hundreds of yearly earthquakes of at least magnitude 2.5, the minimum humans can feel, and thousands of smaller ones.
The reason why is disconcerting: Seismologists say that one of the state’s biggest industries is upsetting a delicate balance deep underground. They blame the oil and gas business — and particularly a technique called wastewater injection — for waking up ancient fault lines, turning a historically stable region into a shaky one, and opening the door to larger earthquakes that Texas might not be ready for.
The state is finally trying to change that. In December, the Texas Railroad Commission — the state agency that regulates oil and gas operations and no longer has anything to do with railroads — suspended wastewater injection at 33 sites across a region where more than half a million people live. This is a notable turnaround for the Railroad Commission, which until recently did not acknowledge a link between oil and gas operations and earthquakes, and might be a sign of just how serious the earthquakes have gotten.
https://www.vox.com/22891806/texas-earthquakes-oil-gas-drilling-wastewater-reinjection
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Texass. And damn Big Oil. (Also Oklahoma)
Big Food is ready to sell you more plant-based meat
Animal agriculture accounts for around 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — yet lawmakers largely ignore it when crafting policy to combat climate change.
That neglect extends to the food industry more broadly, which for a long time has paid even less attention to its emissions than the energy or transport sectors. But as big fast food chains, grocers, and food manufacturers roll out sustainability plans, some are specifically committing to increasing and promoting their plant-based offerings, which are much less carbon-intensive than conventional meat and dairy products.
Panera Bread kicked things off two years ago when it announced in January 2020 that it would make half of its menu plant-based in several years, up from 25 percent vegetarian at the time. Earlier this month, Burger King UK went a step further by announcing a plan to make its menu 50 percent plant-based by 2030 as a way to achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 41 percent by 2030. And this week, McDonald’s announced plans to trial its McPlant burger made with Beyond Meat in 600 San Francisco and Dallas-Fort Worth area locations starting February 14.
The change has been swift. In a report published late last year, FAIRR, or Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return — a nonprofit that lobbies food corporations to address the environmental and social risks of factory farming — found that the 25 companies it lobbies are all at work developing their own plant-based products, while seven of them have announced specific targets to expand their plant-based sales.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22883795/food-industry-plant-based-vegan-meat-dairy-climate-pledges
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OK for lots of people, not for me. The components of most "fake meat" have BAD effects on me. You don't wanna know.
Authorities charge teen in TN 'swatting' incident
Canadian authorities have charged the suspect believed to be behind “swatting” calls at Volunteer High School in Church Hill and Watauga High School in Boone, North Carolina, last year.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police told News Channel 11 that Sean Arthur Murdock, 18, was charged with two counts of public mischief and two counts of mischief related to both swatting incidents.
Public mischief is punishable by up to five years in prison while mischief is punishable by up two years.
RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre said Murdock is also being investigated for six other swatting incidents that happened in the U.S. and additional charges are pending.
Tennessee 3rd District Attorney General Dan Armstrong said Thursday that he was “comfortable” with those charges and will not pursue extradition because the charges Murdock would face here would not be as severe. Armstrong told News Channel 11 in October that he would wait for Canadian authorities to file charges before determining if he would seek extradition.
https://www.wate.com/regional-news/canadian-authorities-charge-suspect-in-volunteer-high-school-swatting-incident/
Officials respond to weapons comment made at Page County School Board meeting
The Page County School Board met Thursday night to vote in favor of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order, making masks a choice for students.
During the citizen comment period, commenter Amelia King said “No mask mandates. My child, my children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on. Alright? That’s not happening. And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready.”
The school board cut her off for exceeding her three minutes, and she responded with “I’ll see you all on Monday.”
King later sent an apology to the school board that was read aloud at the end of Thursday night’s meeting.
https://www.whsv.com/2022/01/21/officials-respond-weapons-comment-made-page-county-school-board-meeting/
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Not only deplorable, but despicable.
USC Fraternities Will Be Required To Hire Security To Keep People Out Of Bedrooms Before They Can Pa
USC Fraternities Will Be Required To Hire Security To Keep People Out Of Bedrooms Before They Can Party Again
After a series of suspensions over allegations of drugging and sexual assault, fraternities at the University of Southern California can start hosting parties again in March — if they hire security guards to keep people out of bedrooms.
The new, unprecedented policy was announced this week after protests and calls to reform or abolish Greek life on campus last fall prompted the Interfraternity Council to halt all fraternity house events. In October, USC's Sigma Nu chapter was suspended after six students said they were drugged at party and one student said they were sexually assaulted. Three additional fraternities were placed on interim suspensions and another on a "modified suspension" while it underwent an investigation by the university's Office for Equity, Equal Opportunity and Title IX.
Last week, just before in-person classes were expected to resume and Greek organizations were expected to start recruiting new members, the university notified them what requirements they will have to meet in order to resume social events in the spring. A working group of fraternity members, student government, faculty, and safety officials drafted the new guidelines during the winter break, according to a statement from USC Provost Charles F. Zukoski.
"About 4,000 of our students participate in fraternity and sorority life at USC, and many say that this is a central part of their USC experience," Zukoski wrote in a letter to students. "Developing and strengthening this partnership will be critical to our long term success in meeting our goals."
Fraternities and sororities were already required to hire security guards at the doors of their parties, but the new guidelines will also require them to hire security "at stairs or hallways leading to bedrooms."
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/usc-fraternities-security-parties-assault
Rep. Massie tests positive for Covid, says he's unvaccinated
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona both announced Thursday that they tested positive for Covid-19.
Massie, who also said he is not vaccinated, is a fierce critic of White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, and has been among the loudest voices in Congress against vaccine and mask mandates.
"I have tested positive for SARS-CoV2. (Home test, confirmed by lab PCR.) I had cold/allergy symptoms for 1 day, and seem to be over it," he tweeted.
"I will not be voting, meeting in person, or making public appearances until next week," he continued. "I am not vaccinated or boosted."
He also suggested his case is mild because he's been previously infected by Covid-19.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/thomas-massie-covid-19/index.html
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I kinda hope it's Delta. Is that too mean?
'Like witnessing a birth in a morgue': the volunteers working to save the Joshua trees
The trees are not exactly imposing. Slim and spiny, with limbs that grip small poms of sharp leaves, they look like something a child might dream up. Or maybe Salvador Dalí. Even the name, Joshua tree, sounds kind of awkward.
On a wet and chilly December morning, I stood at a makeshift encampment in the Mojave national preserve in San Bernardino county, California, listening as a group of strangers fretted over the trees’ precarious future. Within the preserve is Cima Dome, a broad-sloping mound that, until recently, contained the densest Joshua tree forest in the world.
That changed in August 2020, when a lightning storm ignited the Dome fire, which ripped through over 43,000 acres of Cima Dome and burned about 1.3m Joshua trees. Given that Joshua trees – which technically are not trees but a species of desert succulent – are native only to the south-western US, the Dome fire represented an outright disaster to their survival.
Looking out that morning, I saw seemingly endless fields of the trees’ scorched and tortured carcasses. This was a terrible harbinger of things to come: a 2019 Ecosphere journal study determined that, if carbon emissions stay at current levels, just 0.02% of the species would survive.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/20/joshua-trees-climate-crisis-wildfires
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