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Thursday, April 30, 2020

In findings published last month in the journal Current Biology, neuroscientists from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience examined harm aversion in laboratory rats for conspecifics — rats not wanting to hurt other members of the same species — and reported which region of the brain was crucial for it. Wikinews caught up with Dr Christian Keysers and Dr Valeria Gazzola, two of the authors who contributed to the paper.

For the experiment, the rats were put in a container with two levers. The rats were trained to develop a preference for one of the two levers: each delivering one pellet of sucrose. One of the two levers was harder to press.

After developing a preference, the preferred lever was wired to deliver a shock to another rat in a neighbouring compartment, while delivering a single pellet of sucrose. The study showed the actor rat, which pressed the lever tend to switch the lever to avoid shocking the other rat. The rat receiving the shock was called a victim rat.

Aversion of harm to fellow rats was reported to be equal in both male and female rats. If the actor rats were previously exposed to the shocks, their degree of harm aversion for others was heightened, the study revealed.

The investigation reported the rats avoided pressing the preferred lever to shock another rat, even if that lever delivered two sucrose pellets and the no-harm lever delivered only one. However, this was not the case when the rats were given three pellets by the shock lever. Most of the actor rats did not switch when they received three pellets pressing the lever, which also delivered an electric shock. Dr Gazzola called it a “tipping point” and said it was a “cost-benefit” function.

The study also revealed the importance of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) region of the rat’s brain for harm aversion. The scientists tested harm aversion for conspecifics in the rodents after deactivating the ACC using muscimol. Muscimol was injected in the rats belonging to the test group, while saline water was injected to rats in the control group. The observations showed without the active ACC due to muscimol, the active rats in the test group were no longer averse to harming the victim rats, but degree of harm aversion did not drop in the control group rats.

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO of Ericsson, began a tour of some of Marconi’s European sites this morning, starting at Coventry and moving to Beeston for the afternoon session. Genoa and Backnang will be visited on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mike Parton, CEO of Marconi Corporation, spoke of the ‘good news’ for all stake-holders and introduced Svanberg to a round of applause from the majority of the staff at Coventry New Century Park, while more staff from Coventry New Horizon Park listened on a conference call line.

The purpose of the tour is to communicate to approx. Eighty percent of Marconi’s staff and allow them to ask questions about the asset purchase proposed by Ericsson.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Ren and Stimpy. Bugs Bunny. Philip J. Fry and Professor Hubert Farnsworth on Futurama. Sparx. Bi-Polar Bear. Popeye the Sailor Man. Woody Woodpecker. You may not think you have ever heard Billy West, but chances are on a television program, a movie, a commercial, or as Howard Stern’s voice guru in the 1990’s, you have heard him. West’s talent for creating personalities by twisting his voice has made him one of a handful of voice actors—Hank Azaria and the late Mel Blanc come to mind—who have achieved celebrity for their talent. Indeed, West is one of the few voice actors who can impersonate Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons.

What is the fulcrum in Mr. West’s life that led him to realize a talent to shape personalities with his voice, and how did the discovery of that gift shape him? Wikinews reporter David Shankbone found that like many great comedians, West faced more sour early in life than he did sweet. The sour came from a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father (“I could tell you the kind of night I was going to have from the sound of the key in the door or the way the car pulled up.”), to his own problems with drug and alcohol use (“There is a point that you can reach in your life where you don’t want to live, but you haven’t made the decision to die.”).

If sin, suffering and redemption feel like the stages of an endless cycle of American existence, West’s own redemption from his brutalized childhood is what helped shape his gift. He performed little bits to cheer up his cowed mother, ravaged by the fact she could not stop her husband’s abuse of young West. “I was the whipping boy and she would just be reduced to tears a lot of times, and I would come in and say stuff, and I would put out little bits just to pull her out of it.”

But West has also enjoyed the sweet. His career blossomed as his talent for creating entire histories behind fictional characters and creatures simply by exploring nuance in his voice landed him at the top of his craft. You may never again be able to forget that behind the voice of your favorite character, there is often an extraordinary life.

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with renowned voice actor Billy West, who for the first time publicly talks about the horrors he faced in his childhood; his misguided search for answers in anger, drugs and alcohol; and the peace he has achieved as one of America’s most recognizable voice actors.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Las Vegas, Nevada — The San Jose Police Department has announced that Anna Ayala, the woman who claims to have found a human finger in a bowl of chili at a Wendy’s restaurant in San Jose, California, was arrested at or near her home in Las Vegas on Thursday evening, in connection with the case.

According to court documents, she has been charged with one count of attempted grand larceny related to the chili case, and one count of grand larceny in an unrelated real estate deal, and is being held without bail in Clark County, Nevada, pending extradition. A press conference by the San Jose Police and Wendy’s was to be held on Friday, April 22, at 13:00 PDT.

Wendy’s had offered a reward of as much as $100,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. Ayala claimed to have discovered the finger while eating at a Wendy’s on March, 22. Ayala later dropped plans to sue the restaurant after previous lawsuits, including one against another fast food restaurant, were made public.

The charges place the value of the attempted theft against Wendy’s at $2.5 million. The unrelated charge stems from an incident, also in San Jose, when Ayala allegidly received an $11,000 down payment on a mobile home she did not own. Ayala will face an extradition hearing on Tuesday, April 26.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

The hijab, or “Muslim headscarf”, is an item of clothing which is regarded by some Muslims as “compulsory” for women to wear. But for the first time in Britain, a Muslim school has declared that all girl students, including non-Muslims, will be required to wear the hijab.

Ten-percent of places at the Madani High School, a new school, will be allocated to students who are not of the Islamic faith, meaning that there will be 60 places for non-Muslim girls, who will all be expected to wear the headscarf.

The school asserts that it may require the headscarf as part of the uniform. The Commission for Racial Equality responded that the school should consider all pupils when putting together a uniform policy.

Shadow education secretary David Willetts said the move would “harm hopes of integrating communities and drive non-Muslims away”.

Earlier this month Jack Straw called upon Muslim women not to wear the veil (know as a Burqa or Niqab) when meeting with MPs, saying its makes relations between different communities more difficult.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Augustus Freeman Hawkins, a prominent U.S. figure in Civil Rights and Organized Labor history, has died at the age of 100, just three days ago, on November 10.

Born on August 31, 1907, Shreveport, Louisiana, he served as the first African American from California in the United States Congress, where he sponsored the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act.

Hawkins was a Democratic member of the State Assembly in 1935 to 1963; he was also a delegate to the National Conventions of 1940, 1944 and 1960 and a California Presidential Elector in the 1944 Election. Hawkins attended high school in Los Angeles, and received his undergraduate degree from the UCLA in 1931.

During 1963 to 1991, he represented California’s 21st District (1963-75), and 29th District (1975-1991), in Congress. Early in his congressional career, he authored including the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act establishing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Job Training Partnership Act, and the School Improvement Act. He was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. As chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, he sponsored the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, alongside Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. The Bill gave the U.S. government the goal to provide full employment; it also ordered that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board must give a Congressional testimony on the economy.

Over his career, Hawkins authored more than 300 state and federal laws. He also succeeded in restoring honorable discharges to the 170 black soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment who had been falsely accused of a public disturbance in Brownsville, Texas, in 1906, and removed from the Army.

Hawkins retired in 1991 to his Los Angeles home, and lived in Washington, D.C. for the remainder of his life.