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Feb 29, 2020

A dog in Hong Kong tests positive for the coronavirus, WHO officials confirm

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A dog in Hong Kong has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus that’s killed at least 2,859 humans across the world over the last two months, World Health Organization officials said Friday.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead of WHO’s emergencies program, said the canine tested “weakly positive,” meaning low levels of the virus were found.

Hong Kong scientists aren’t sure if the dog is actually infected or if it picked up the virus from a contaminated surface, she said.

Feb 29, 2020

SpaceX planning major increase in Florida launch activity

Posted by in category: transportation

WASHINGTON — SpaceX is proposing a significant increase in launch activity in Florida over the next few years, including missions to polar orbits and those that will require the use of a new vertical payload integration tower.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation published a draft environmental assessment Feb. 27 regarding SpaceX launch activities from both Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center and Space Launch Complex 40 at neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The assessment, the FAA said, will be used in new or modified commercial launch licenses for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles from those sites.

One reason for the assessment, the report states, is “SpaceX’s launch manifest includes more annual Falcon launches and Dragon reentries than were considered in previous [environmental] analyses.” SpaceX performed 11 launches from LC-39A and SLC-40 in 2019 and 15 in 2018, the most any one year to date.

Feb 29, 2020

Israeli firm unveils kit to diagnose coronavirus, as 2nd team works on a vaccine

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Announcement of BATM kit comes as officials struggle to balance need for rapid testing and worries over false positives; science minister hails institute’s progress toward vaccine.

Feb 29, 2020

IBM and Microsoft sign Vatican pledge for ethical AI

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

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Feb 29, 2020

Survivors From The MK Ultra Program Come Together To Sue The Federal Government

Posted by in categories: ethics, government, neuroscience

According to this CTV News article, survivors and families of an MK Ultra brainwashing program run by Dr. Ewen Cameron at McGill University in Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s have banded together to bring the horrors of this program more fully into the public eye.

They are planning a class action lawsuit against the provincial and federal government, an initiative which lawyer Alan Stein feels optimistic about:

“I believe we can claim moral damages as a result of the experiments when Dr. Cameron used these people as guinea pigs.”—lawyer Alan Stein

Feb 29, 2020

US and Taliban sign historic deal to end Afghan conflict

Posted by in category: futurism

Representatives of the United States and the Taliban have sealed a landmark agreement in Qatar to end the 18-year-long Afghan war. The deal will pave the way for an intra-Afghan dialogue. Shamil Shams reports from Doha.

Feb 29, 2020

AI Enables Doctors to Diagnose COVID-19 Infection in Seconds

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

“At the moment, the YITU “Coronavirus Chest CT Smart Evaluation System” can compress the diagnosis of suspected cases to 2–3 seconds. The company also designed a chatbot doctor that can help the public with self-diagnosis through Q&A and recommend nearby hospitals and appointment booking services.”


An article published in medical journal the Lancelet on February 25 finds that reduced medical resource levels will trigger a spike in the coronavirus death rate in the local population beyond the current estimates. The study shows that death rates are over 3 percent in Wuhan city, 2.9 percent in Hubei province, while only 0.7 percent across the rest of China.

Close to 30,000 medical staff from across China have been dispatched to Hubei province to help overworked local medical professionals in the fight against COVID-19. Fast and accurate diagnosis is critical on the front line, and now an AI-powered diagnostic assessment system is helping Hubei medical teams do just that.

Continue reading “AI Enables Doctors to Diagnose COVID-19 Infection in Seconds” »

Feb 29, 2020

Luxembourg becomes first country to make all public transport free

Posted by in category: transportation

In an attempt to reduce traffic jams, Luxembourg has become the first country in the world to make all public transport free from February 29. This is the first time that the decision to offer free public transport has covered an entire country, the transport ministry said.

The decision has been observed in Luxembourg so as to bring down the congestion on streets, AFP reports. As a result of this decision, every person will be able to save around 100 euros ($110) per year.

The free public transport system, however, does not include first-class travel tickets on trains and certain night bus services.

Feb 29, 2020

Kelvin Dafiaghor added a new photo

Posted by in categories: education, employment

Day 6 of students learning future jobs skills@ Ogba Educational Clinic.

Feb 29, 2020

114 Year-Old Cells Converted to Pluripotent Stem Cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

I think I can speak for us older folks on this…YAY!


AgeX converts the cells of deceased 114-year-old into young pluripotent stem cells; evidence of telomere aging reversal in a supercentenarian’s cells.