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Trapped
How much suffering can you stand to watch?

The raccoon is trapped in a shallow creek, her paw ensnared by the hidden steel jaws on the ground below the water. She gasps for air and tries to survive, even as the trapper slams her face with his wooden pole... and then slams again. She gasps for air as he uses that pole to force her head beneath the surface, seconds ticking away... but death does not come. She gasps for air as the trapper steps on her awkwardly, searching for the right angle to keep her submerged. With inexplicable resilience, she battles death. You can see it in her eyes: unfathomable fear and utter helplessness.

The coyote is innocently walking through a field, as he may have done hundreds of times before. He is bewildered by the searing pain on his paw. He can't move. Minute after minute, he struggles, mud starting to encase his precious fur as he falls on his side. You can see that he is starting to lose his breath. You can see that he is starting to lose his will. The trapper approaches. A swift kick in the coyote's side. Why? You can see it in his eyes: unfathomable fear and utter helplessness.

How much suffering can you stand to watch... and do nothing?

The trapping industry is barbaric and archaic, fundamentally unchanged for centuries. Steel-jaw leghold traps set out for unsuspecting furbearers on both public and private lands. Jaws slamming shut to cause agony to the trappers' prey. Conibear traps baited to attract their victims and crush their backs, stomachs, or necks. The fur industry causes shameful and unnecessary suffering to feed a business that should finally die.

And, while Born Free USA has worked for years to stop cruel trapping in the National Wildlife Refuge System, we now applaud Congressional representatives Alma Adams (D-NC) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) for introducing the Public Safety and Wildlife Protection Act (H.R. 5560), which would ban the import, export, and interstate transport of Conibear and steel-jaw leghold traps (including all modifications: padded, toothed, enclosed foothold, "dog-proof" foothold, etc.). It would also ban the purchase or acquisition of any leghold or Conibear trap that was transported illegally.

Nearly 90% of American trappers use these devices that cause such distress, misery, suffering, and death. These traps are indiscriminate, so, despite being set for a beaver or a coyote, other animals--including people's companion animals--could be caught instead.

People can be harmed, as well. One of the inspirations behind Congresswoman Adams' support for H.R. 5560 was the story of a 12-year-old boy who got his arm caught in a Conibear trap in Whitsett, North Carolina (just outside of her district). The boy suffered tissue damage and had a very bad, very long day in the emergency room, as six doctors tried to figure out how to release his arm from the trap.

Upon introduction of the bill, Congresswoman Adams stated, "The preservation of human life and wildlife is a priority that lawmakers must take seriously. We can no longer afford to disregard the ill-effects that animal cruelty has on our ecosystem and on us, as well. Steel-jaw leghold and Conibear traps are body-gripping tools that are inhumane and archaic. They also pose unnecessary risks to humans, especially young children."

In the U.S., more than four million animals are trapped every year for their fur. Shockingly, the trapping industry is growing: increasing by 20% over the past decade. It's not an important source of household income, though. It's "sport"; it's a hobby or recreation. It's also shockingly pathetic, arrogant, and barbaric. I think that warrants repeating... Trapping is shockingly pathetic, arrogant, and barbaric.

The time has come to rid the U.S. of the trapping industry. No one needs fur except the wolves, coyotes, beavers, foxes, mink, raccoons, and other animals who live in wild areas.

Today, I'm asking you to support legislation aimed at banning or restricting this industry. Don't buy real fur, and consider boycotting stores that sell it. Better yet; shop at stores that are officially fur free.

How much suffering can you help end?

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Adam

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Tyson's Pollution Pathways: from Factory Farms to Fouled Waters

With the passing of July 4th, summer is officially in high gear in America. Perhaps more than any other time of year, this is when we enjoy clean water -- swimming at the beach, fishing in a creek, kayaking down a river, or sailing on a lake or bay.

Unfortunately, corporate agribusiness is imposing a heavy - and growing - toll on America's waterways. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture is the probable cause of polluting more than 145,000 miles of rivers and streams, along with over 1 million acres of lakes, bays, and more.

Last year, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico was the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined--the largest since 2002. And now, agribusiness is even threatening our drinking water - with incidents from Toledo to Des Moines, from Wisconsin to Washington State.

How did we get to the point where companies selling us food are polluting our water?

The answer lies in the industrialization and concentration of their agribusiness operations. Factory farms produce huge volumes of manure with no place to put it. That manure is frequently over-applied to cropland, where it all too often flows into nearby rivers and streams. Moreover, pollution also runs off of vast acres of commodity crops (often grown to feed the millions of animals on factory farms). And finally, the huge slaughterhouses and other facilities to process meat and grain dump pollutants directly into our rivers and streams.

To better hold agribusiness accountable, we need to start tracking the pollution threats created by individual companies.

For example, Tyson Foods, Inc. is one of the world's largest producers of meat and poultry. Based in Springdale, Arkansas, the company has long been a dominant player in the region's high concentration of chicken production. It has additional operations in the Midwest and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Environment America Research & Policy Center recently took a look at how Tyson's water pollution footprint stacks up against four other major agribusiness companies: Smithfield, Cargill, JBS, and Perdue. We published the results in our new report, "Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America's Waterways."

"2016-07-05-1467755304-6260108-manurefootprint.jpg"

Using data available from EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we documented the manure load and direct dumping of toxic pollutants by each of these corporations. For both measurements, Tyson came out on top of the polluter pile - with more than 55 million tons of manure in its supply chain, and its facilities responsible for dumping 104 million pounds of toxic pollutants into waterways over a five-year period.

To put this second figure in perspective: Tyson's toxic discharges for these years were 2nd by volume, as compared to all other industries. That is, Tyson not only dumped more toxic pollution into waters than Smithfield or Perdue; Tyson dumped a greater volume of pollution into our waters than Exxon, DuPont, or Koch Industries.

Moreover, the vast majority of toxic pollutants Tyson poured from its processing plants were nitrates. Nitrates not only contribute to the dead zones plaguing our waterways but also threaten the safety of our drinking water, as they can cause "blue baby syndrome" and have recently been linked to certain types of cancer.

Tyson's pollution has had particularly severe impacts on the waters of northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. When chicken manure contaminated two sources of drinking water for Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tyson and other poultry processors agreed to pay the city $7.5 million. And when the Illinois River and several tributaries became so polluted with pathogens from animal waste that they were no longer safe for swimming, the Oklahoma attorney general sued Tyson and several other chicken processors to clean it up.

Since then, Tyson has been charged with numerous violations and pollution incidents. In 2015, for example, Tyson settled a case in Missouri for releases into a municipal sewage system that ultimately resulted in killing at least 100,000 fish in Clear Creek.

Will Tyson begin to curb its massive water pollution footprint?

So far, the signs are not encouraging. While the company's environment webpage highlights efforts to address water consumption, it has no reference to water pollution. Moreover, Tyson's own 2015 sustainability report shows that the company exceeded water pollution limits on hundreds of occasions in recent years. Finally, in the past two years, Tyson has twice rejected shareholder resolutions calling on the company to reduce its water pollution.

Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. We know how to grow food without polluting our water.

Take second-generation Missouri farmer, Terry Spence. Terry raises his cattle on rotational pasture to nurture the soil and keep manure from flowing into nearby streams.

"As a farmer it is my duty to preserve our land and water resources for future generations," he said during a recent call with reporters. "And it's high time these companies look beyond their profit margins and do the same."

We couldn't agree more. It's time to protect our rivers and streams - and our drinking water - from the pollution of agribusiness giants like Tyson.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The cruelty of cloning endangered animals | Letters

Harvesting the eggs, sperm and tissue of endangered animals for future cloning is a good plot for a horror film, but not reality (Report, 5 July). We need to spend time and resources on saving existing animals whose natural habitats are fast disappearing, rather than trying to resurrect them. Cloning animals after they've vanished from nature is fraught with problems, such as severe birth defects, premature degenerative diseases and poor immunity. If wild animals were cloned, they would likely end up in zoos, denied the opportunity to do almost anything natural and enjoyable, just like the polar bears, elephants and other animals currently kept captive. It is inarguably urgent to save threatened species' habitats, but inflicting pain and torture is not the answer. If Dolly has taught us one thing, it's that cloning animals belongs only in sci-fi stories.
Jennifer White
London

• Join the debate email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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Matrix'-Style Skill Transfer Is Possible With Electrical Brain Stimulation
This article was originally posted on Inverse.

"2016-07-05-1467756058-5768377-brainsjpg.jpeg"

By Yasmin Tayag

What if becoming a pilot was as simple as putting on a cap?

That's the question posed at the beginning of a video from HRL Laboratories, a company attempting to develop Matrix-style brain uploading using electrical brain stimulation techniques.

In their latest study, researchers successfully used a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation, or TDCS, to "transfer" brain activity from expert pilots to beginners. If their results, published in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, are any indication, it looks like we're all on the way to becoming like Neo, expressing surprise that we know the proverbial "kung fu."

Imagine brain activity as a skull-shaped map of electrical currents: People who are better at certain tasks -- say, landing a virtual plane -- are going to have very different natural patterns of electrical activity than the rest of us when it comes to actually applying those skills. It's a good thing, then, that we've figured out other ways to run electricity through our brains.

Using customized skullcaps, fitted with electrodes, the researchers zapped the brains of novice pilots with the brain patterns of six flight experts, hoping they could improve their performance during flight simulation training.

In particular, the researchers focused on stimulating the brains' right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is known to be linked to working memory.

They found that novices who received four consecutive days of brain-zapping showed a 33 percent increase in skill consistency during flight simulations compared to those who got fake brain stimulation, suggesting that TDCS really did improve learning.

Picking up a new skill, like landing a plane, takes both time spent actively practicing and "offline" days spent consolidating those experiences. While the researchers aren't changing up the learning process altogether -- the novice pilots still had to go through training -- they suggest that TDCS can cut down on the time it takes to complete the learning process.

The field is still in its infancy -- it's still largely the domain of DIY brain zappers -- but the researchers are hoping that their research could someday help people with traumatic brain injuries re-learn essential skills.

At this rate, it won't be long until we all know kung fu.

"2016-07-05-1467756275-1042534-matrixgif.gif"

MORE FROM INVERSE:

Photos via https://www.facebook.com/TheMatrixMovie/

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r0B0t: Washington University to train locusts to 'sniff out explosives' - Daily Mail

Daily Mail

Washington University to train locusts to 'sniff out explosives'
Daily Mail
A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis hopes to breed 'cyberinsects' tuned to smell out explosives. Wing tattoos will allow researchers to steer the insects remotely. HOW IT WILL WORK. Researchers hope to develop and demonstrate a ...
Cyborg locusts being developed to sniff out explosivesITV News
Scientist Wants to Engineer Locusts Into Remote-Controlled Bomb DetectorsGizmodo
Why is the Navy paying to engineer hordes of tattooed robot locusts?TrustedReviews
BBC News -The Stack -Telegraph.co.uk -Engadget
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r0B0t: Amazon moves one step closer toward army of warehouse robots - The Guardian

The Guardian

Amazon moves one step closer toward army of warehouse robots
The Guardian
Kiva robots transport goods at an Amazon Fulfillment Center, ahead of the Christmas rush, in Tracy, California in 2014. Photograph: Noah Berger/Reuters. Sam Thielman in New York. @samthielman. Tuesday 5 July 2016 15.15 EDT Last modified on Tuesday ...
Amazon robot competition won by shelf stacking AI that could one day be used in warehousesThe Independent
Team Delft Wins Amazon Picking ChallengeIEEE Spectrum
Amazon robots close to replacing the rest of warehouse workersExtremeTech
The Verge -BBC News -Engadget -Tech News Today
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Stonewall National Monument - Celebrating Love Over Hate

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On Monday, my teenage daughter and I attended a powerful dedication of our nation's newest addition to the National Park System, the Stonewall National Monument. President Obama designated this new national monument to celebrate and remind all of us of the great courage and commitment of gay right activists almost 50 years ago.

During the 1960's, the Stonewall Inn bar in lower Manhattan was one of the few places in our nation where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people could safely convene, dance and recapture the humanity that was too often denied them in the rest of their lives. A police raid of the bar in 1969 elevated Stonewall as a national icon and spurred the gay rights movement across America and other parts of the world. The Stonewall monument designation on Monday also marks the one year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. Today, the LGBTQ movement is seen as a powerful civil rights effort, creating equality and dignity for all.

Yet as we celebrated this newest national monument, many of the speakers also reminded us that we must remain vigilant in stopping hate crimes. The horrible mass shooting in the LGBTQ Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were killed is a poignant reminder that such hatred towards LGBTQ people remains very real and deadly.

For me, this act of hatred and violence made me recall the horrific murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. My wife and I lived in Laramie, Wyoming in the 1990's. The brutal beating by two men, who then left Matthew to die tied to a fencepost, was a hate crime that shattered our sense of Laramie as a small, safe town. It was an eye-opening glimpse into the cruelty faced by those targeted for their sexualized identity.

Eleven years after Matthew Shepard's murder, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard Act that extended hate crime protections to LGBTQ people. Also, less than one year after Matthew's murder, my daughter was born. Today, 17 years later, being at the Stonewall designation instilled in her an affirmation of her value and place in our country and as a member of the LGBTQ rights movement.

The Stonewall National Monument will always remind us that our nation's history is complex and vivid. Adding the important history of Stonewall Inn to our National Park System validates our parks as places for and about all Americans. They are places where we come together to celebrate life, heal our wounds, and remember those that put it all on the line to protect our democracy.

Join me in thanking President Obama for yet another gift to America!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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What Senate Backers Aren't Saying About the GMO "Compromise" Bill
Last week, Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced what they bill as a "compromise" deal that would label GMO foods across the nation. But the advocacy groups that have fought so long and hard for clear GMO labeling aren't cheering: They know the bill is a gift to the agribusiness and biotech industries--not a compromise. That's why consumer advocates have dubbed the bill the Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act.

Here's what the backers of the bill don't want their constituents to know about the DARK Act:

The Bill Is Not a National Labeling Solution.

The backers of the Senate bill are portraying this as a big victory for those of us who don't live in Vermont, which passed a GMO labeling law that goes into effect today. (The Senate committee's Twitter feed even posted a map showing that their bill would spread Vermont-style labeling across all 50 states.) But this is a misleading claim.

The Vermont law is about clear, on-package labeling, but that's not what the Senate is proposing. This bill is not about expanding GMO labeling; it's about preventing states like Vermont from taking action. As the bill states, it would "immediately prohibit states or other entities from mandating labels of food or seed that is genetically engineered."

The fact is, clear GMO labels are already appearing in stores nationwide, thanks to the Vermont law, because it's much easier for a company to provide GMO labels on all of its products than just the ones going to Vermont. Companies that have publicly agreed to comply with the Vermont law include Mars, General Mills, Kellogg's, ConAgra, and Campbell Soup. GMO labels can already be found on packages of Snickers, M&Ms, Lay's Potato Chips, Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos and Smartfood Popcorn, among others. But this bill would put an end to that.

Furthermore, New York, Massachusetts and other states have ongoing efforts to label GMOs at the state level--efforts that the DARK Act would effectively shut down. Indeed, that is its true purpose.

The Bill Does Not Clearly Label GMOs.

Advocates of GMO labeling have pushed for clear, on-package language, just like what's required under the Vermont law. But the Senate bill would allow manufacturers to post "call for more information" phone numbers or even smart phone "QR codes" if they so desire--meaning that if you have a phone with the right app installed, a steady hand and a solid data connection you'll be able to access a website that will tell you what's in the food you're buying.

That's not a label--that's a hassle.

The Bill Has No Penalties for Violators.

In announcing the bill, Sen. Stabenow said: "For the first time ever, consumers will have a national, mandatory label for food products that contain genetically modified ingredients." But there is no mandatory recall authority if a company does not comply with the suggested QR code or 800 number options (or any of the other vague and meager aspects of the bill.) Nor are there any penalties or fines associated with non-compliance. How can labels be mandatory if there are not even the most modest attempts to require enforcement?

The Bill Does Not Cover All Genetically Engineered Food Ingredients.

A bill that claims to be a "mandatory system of disclosure for food that contains GMO ingredients" must require labels that mention GMOs, right? Not necessarily. As McClatchy reported, "food manufacturers would have wide discretion under the new law to comply, and the now-familiar terms 'GMO,' 'genetically modified' or 'biotechnology' aren't guaranteed to appear."

Furthermore, the definition of "genetically engineered" could mean that some of the most pervasive GMO crops might not require a label. That's why Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said the bill "would potentially allow products with a significant portion of GMO ingredients to skate by without being subject to labeling requirements." The bill would not even apply to many forms of genetically engineered food--only foods produced with traditional forms of genetic engineering. This leaves out emerging techniques like gene editing.

The Bill Benefits Corporations, Not Consumers

The industry has been chomping at the bit to repeal Vermont's law. This bill does that. The industry has long said GMO labels should be voluntary, meaning companies get to decide how much information consumers get. That's precisely what this bill does--puts all the power in the hands of food companies, while ensuring that consumers are left wondering what is in their food. This bill is no compromise--it's a gift to agribusiness and biotechnology companies that have fought popular, state-based labeling initiatives for the past five years.

Americans should know this--even if Senate backers of the bill refuse to say it.

This piece originally appeared at TheHill.com's Congress Blog.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Self-portrait. Living in a toxic enviornment is getting to me. My only hope is that it will make me a better artist.