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Game Primer: How to Watch, Key Players and Important Information for Kansas Jayhawks at Iowa State Cyclones
The Jayhawks broke their losing streak against West Virginia, but can they establish a new winning streak?
Andy Mitts
The Kansas Jayhawks finally broke through and picked up another conference win, staging a big comeback in the second half to notch a victory over West Virginia. Up next is a depleted Iowa State team that is still playing at a high level, but is vulnerable in some key positions.
It's another matchup between two ranked teams, one of many that we will see the rest of the year. So here is everything you need to know before today's game.
Editor's Note: Unless otherwise noted, all stats are provided by CBB Analytics. CBB Analytics is a new stats website in college hoops, covering both men and women's basketball in D-I, D-II and D-III. You can follow them on Twitter @CBBAnalytics
Kansas: 13-4 (3-3 Big 12): CBB Analytics Net Rating - 39th overall, 68th offense, 32nd defense
Iowa State: 12-4 (4-2 Big 12): Net Rating - 36th overall, 26th offense, 109th defense
Line: ISU -5.5
O/U: 135.5
Saturday, January 21st, 5:00 p.m. CST
Ames, IA: Hilton Coliseum
TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
- B.J. Schaben (Play-by-Play), Chelsea Poppens (Analyst)
Radio: IMG Jayhawk Radio Network
- Steven Davis (Play-by-Play)
Webcast: Kansas Online Radio
Follow along during the game for live updates on Twitter.
Come join the conversation in the Blue Wings Rising Discord Server.
Opponent Team Form
The Cycloness are coached by Bill Fennely, who is in his 28th season at Iowa State. His record at the school is 580-295. Last season, they finished 28-7 overall, including a 14-4 Big 12 record. They finished the season in an upset by Creighton in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
This season, the team is shooting 43.0% overall and 31.8% from three-point range, with a 79.6% average from the free-throw line. They are a slow paced team that gets the majority of their points in the half court. They are middle of the pack in offensive rebound, points in the paint and getting to the line, but they take almost half of their shots from beyond the arc.
Defensively, they are a very sound team that plays straight up, fronting the post and trying to keep the ball out on the perimeter where their best defenders are. They don't really stand out in a lot of areas, as they don't force many turnovers, they don't block many shots, and they aren't forcing a lot of bad shots from the opponents. They also send their opponents to the line more often than you would like. But they do limit second chances, with the Div 1 best 78% defensive rebounding rate.
The Cyclones are led by senior guard Ashley Joens, who scores 19.1 points per game and pulls down an average of 9.1 rebounds, tops on the team (among those still playing). Emily Ryan is the main ballhandler and leads the team in assists and Lexi Donarski, the returning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, helps round out the perimeter defense.
The losses of Stephanie Soares and Beatriz Jordao are huge in the post, as it leaves a big hole that the Cyclones have been struggling to fill situationally. Some combination of Nyamer Diew, Morgan Kane and Izzi Zingaro have been picking up minutes, but it is hard to tell who is going to have the unenviable task of trying to cover the Jayhawks in the post.
Matchups to Watch
I feel like a broken record here, because size has been a big issue for Iowa State as well. Senior center Taiyanna Jackson will have a huge impact on this game, but she won't be the only one. Ioanna Chatzileonti and Chandler Prater each bring a different dimension into the post game, and smart use of each can make it difficult for Iowa State to keep up. It's a strange position to be in.
On the perimeter, Holly Kersgieter will need to be on a hot streak, but the defensive efforts of Iowa State could easily send her into a slump. Wyvette Mayberry has pretty quickly shown herself to be the most important Jayhawk on the perimeter, as her ball-handling frees up Zakiyah Franklin to play more off the ball. Look to see how well Iowa State can force Mayberry into foul trouble.
I would normally chalk this one up immediately as a loss, but the post game is a HUGE issue for this team. Iowa State is not nearly the defensive juggernaut they usually are, and so I expect Kansas to get some pretty big opportunities to score.
Kansas kicked it into another gear in the second half against West Virginia, and I just get the feeling they keep it going. Give me the Jayhawks as they get back above .500 in the conference.
Kansas 74, Iowa State 65.
Join the discussion! Come talk about this or any of our articles on the Blue Wing Rising Discord Server.
Follow Blue Wings Rising on Twitter.
Listen to the official podcast of Blue Wings Rising: The Rock Chalk Podcast.
Kansas Women's Basketball
Editor-in-Chief, Blue Wings Rising
Follow AndyMitts12
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By Andy Mitts Feb 1, 2023 1:49 AM EST
Game Primer: How To Watch, Things To Know for Kansas State at Kansas
By Andy Mitts Jan 31, 2023 7:14 PM EST
Kansas State Wildcats at Kansas Jayhawks Predictions
Big 12 Men's Basketball Power Ranking - Week 5
By Andy Mitts Jan 31, 2023 12:35 PM EST
Kansas vs. Kansas State Basketball Preview: KU's X-Factors in the Rematch
By Kyle Davis Jan 31, 2023 10:00 AM EST
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LIVE Updates and Scores: Kansas State Wildcats at Kansas Jayhawks
Game Primer: How to Watch, Key Players and Important Information for Kansas State Wildcats at Kansas Jayhawks

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Harrison Bergeron
Vonnegut's Political and Social Critique
George Bergeron
Hazel Bergeron
Kurt Vonnegut and Harrison Bergeron Background
1.	"I think I'd make a good Handicapper General."
"Good as anybody else," said George.
"Who knows better'n I do what normal is?" said Hazel.
This passage appears near the beginning of the story. Vonnegut seems to suggest that Hazel's similarity to Diana Moon Glampers is disturbing because it means that the country is being run by people just as clueless as Hazel. When George says that Hazel is as "[g]ood as anybody else," we get the idea that she is just as confused and incapable of serious thought as every other average American living in the year 2081. Hazel's confidence in her understanding of "normal" is both funny and sinister. Her self-confidence in understanding "normal" is amusing, especially because it comes on the heels of her ludicrous suggestion that the government should interrupt thoughts on Sundays with religious-sounding chimes. But it is also a disturbing and subtle reminder that in this futuristic America, the people who run the country are in power not because of their brains or savvy, but because of their normalcy.
Popular pages: Harrison Bergeron
Harrison Bergeron: Character Analysis CHARACTERS


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Међународно првенство Истборна 2010. тениски је турнир за мушкарце и за жене који се игра на отвореним теренима на трави. 35. је едиција турнира за жене, а друга за мушкарце. Играће се у -{Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club}- у Истборну, у Енглеској од 13. јуна до 19. јуна 2010.

Тенисери

Носиоци

Остали учесници

Тенисери који су добили специјалну позивницу организатора за учешће на турниру:
  Џејми Бејкер
  Жил Симон
  Џејмс Вард

Тенисери који су доспјели у главни жреб преко квалификација:
  Мартин Емрих
  Андреј Кузњецов
  Ђовани Лапенти
  Кеј Нишикори

Тенисерке

Носиоци

Друге учеснице

Тенисерке које су добиле специјалну позивницу организатора за учешће на турниру:
  Светлана Кузњецова
  Јелена Балтача
  Ен Кеотавонг

Тенисерке које су доспјеле у главни жреб преко квалификација:
  Јекатарина Макарова
  Каролина Шпрем
  Хедер Вотсон
  Александра Вознијак

Побједници

Мушкарци појединачно
 Микел Лодра је савладао  Гиљерма Гарсију-Лопеза, 7–5, 6–2

Жене појединачно

 Јекатарина Макарова је савладала  Викторију Азаренку, 7–6(5), 6–4

Мушки парови
 Марјуш Фирстенберг и  Марћин Матковски су савладали  Колина Флеминга и  Кена Скупског 6–3, 5–7, [10–8]

Женски парови

 Лиса Рејмонд и  Рене Стабс су савладале  Квету Пешке и  Катарину Среботник, 6–2, 2–6, [13–11]

Спољашње везе
 Званична интернет презентација

Међународно првенство Истборна 2010.

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A Grafith é uma banda de música popular formada em novembro de 1988 em Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, por quatro irmãos que permanecem como integrantes da banda até hoje. O repertório sem limite de gêneros musicais ou preconceitos fez com que a banda conquistasse um público fiel de diferentes camadas sociais, os "Grafiteiros".

Com origem no bairro Cidade da Esperança, na Zona Oeste de Natal, a Grafith sempre esteve adequado às novidades de cada geração. Nos anos 80, predominava o rock de Brasília, com Legião Urbana, Capital Inicial, também o Kid Abelha e os Abóboras Selvagens.

A banda começa a espalhar pelo país um grande número de fã-clubes e admiradores, sobretudo no seu estado de origem, além dos estados do Ceará, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Paraíba e até no Rio de Janeiro.

Alguns sucessos históricos da banda: O Bode, Jungle People, O Brasil canta, Camaleão, Fuleragem.

A banda regrava músicas mal sucedidas de outras bandas, o que inclui desde James Blunt até PSY, e transformam em uma verdadeira explosão, e sem dúvidas e a banda mais bem sucedida da história do Rio Grande do Norte. São mais de 31 anos de carreira com um auge de 122% nas paradas.Atualmente está mais conhecida pelo fato de que o lutador de MMA, Renan Barão, entrou no octógono ouvindo um de seus sucessos.

A banda é conhecida no estado de Rio Grande do Norte por seus dizeres ''Bora negona'' e ''Simbora negona''

História

Em 4 de novembro de 1988, os irmãos Kaká, Carlinhos, Joãozinho e Júnior se juntaram e compuseram a Banda Grafith. Trinta e dois anos mais tarde e com todas as mudanças ocorridas durante este longo percurso, a banda é uma das mais conceituadas do Rio Grande do Norte, com média elevada de shows por mês durante o ano (no verão, o número de apresentações dobra) e constantes solicitações para carnavais, formaturas, confraternizações e eventos. Sua história é sempre lembrada e comemorada no mês de novembro, com uma grande festa que agita a noite potiguar, com várias horas de show e uma viagem no mundo da música.

Há 32 anos, a Banda encantava seu público com sua versatilidade. Conhecidos pelo estilo baile, os irmãos tocavam de tudo: de discoteca e rock a samba e MPB. Foram pioneiros ao realizar sua festa de aniversário – depois da festa do primeiro aniversário da Banda Grafith, outras se inspiraram na ideia e, até hoje, realizam grandes eventos em comemoração a mais um ano de banda, grupo, etc.

Além dessa inovação, os irmãos também foram os primeiros a gravar vinheta de banda. Em 1990, gravaram a mesma vinheta ouvida nos dias de hoje. Com a ideia testada e aprovada pelos fãs, a Banda Grafith lançou tendência em mais um segmento da música – as vinhetas viraram febre em todo o Brasil.

E não parou por aí. Os irmãos ainda foram os pioneiros do "alô", aquela pausa entre as músicas que é aproveitada para dar um alô aos presentes, tão utilizada nos dias de hoje. Virtude de família, a humildade sempre pode ser percebida nos shows, quando os primeiros alôs de cada apresentação eram dados a qualquer pessoa,  independente da classe social. Esta atitude ainda é vista nos shows, 30 anos depois.

Tempos de adaptações – Na década de 90, o cenário musical começou a mudar no Rio Grande do Norte. As músicas mais tocadas pelos irmãos, inspiradas em bandas como Pink Floyd, Queen, Aerosmith, passaram a não empolgar tanto quanto antes. Este foi um período difícil e os irmãos pensaram em desistir. Analisando o cenário local, outras bandas que tocavam baile como a Grafith migraram para o forró eletrônico, a nova tendência. Entre desistir e seguir o mercado musical, Kaká, Carlinhos, Joãozinho e Júnior decidiram fazer o que eles têm feito de melhor – arrastar multidões com música e energia.

Versatilidade – A Banda Grafith é admirada por sua versatilidade. Adapta-se desde micaretas a festas de formatura de escolas, universidades e confraternizações. Dessa forma, a história da Banda em 25 anos pode ser colocada em prática com o arrocha do momento ao repertório de bailes de tempos atrás.

A história da Banda Grafith daria um livro. Mas o que se pode concluir é que, em todos esses anos, ela quebrou paradigmas e superou preconceitos. Cresceu, fez seu nome e, hoje, colhe os frutos do sucesso baseado nos conceitos de família, educação e bons exemplos.

 1988: Aconteceu o primeiro show da banda, numa sexta-feira, dia 4 de Novembro, no clube da ASSEN em Natal/RN.
O famoso "Alô" começa a ser utilizado pela banda, desde seu primeiro show. Júnior Grafith fala o nome de diversos fãs da Nação Grafitheira durante os shows;
 1989: Aniversário de 1º ano da banda, também aconteceu no dia 4 de novembro num sábado, a partir deste a festa passa a ser comemorada tradicionalmente no primeiro ou segundo sábado de Novembro.
A Grafith foi pioneira, dentre as bandas da época, em fazer um show especial para comemorar o aniversário da banda, levando essas apresentações de comemoração para diversas cidades do interior, principalmente para a cidade de Macau/RN.
 1990: Gravação do LP com primeiros registros de trabalho autoral. O nome do Disco, era também, o nome do primeiro sucesso da banda: "Camaleão". O LP conseguiu emplacar outros sucessos como "Eu sou ilê", Jacaré e Garotada Lamba em diversas rádios do Nordeste.
É lançada a famosa vinheta utilizada sobre as músicas para identificar a banda, que até hoje é replicada nas apresentações e gravações: "Gra, Gra, Gra, Gra, Gra, Grafith".
 1992: O Estado da Paraíba, já tinha uma grande ligação com a banda desde projetos anteriores. Nesse ano a Grafith entra no Estado de Pernambuco e do Ceará, dessa forma abrindo novos caminhos e mercados para a banda;
 1993: 5°aniversário da banda, foi o começo da consolidação da banda no mercado do Nordeste.
 1995: A banda já conhecida como uma banda baile, iniciou no mercado de formaturas neste ano, na festa do colégio Nossa Senhora das Neves em Natal/RN.
 1998: A Primeira década de banda, a Grafith, já tinha realizado eventos importantes de diversos tipos, mas no ano de 1998 a banda toca o Baile do Aviador e o evento da ASA ambos da Aeronáutica brasileira.
 2000: A banda já fazia diversos carnavais, micaretas e arrastava a multidão por onde passava, mas foi neste ano que aconteceu o primeiro carnaval na cidade de Macau/RN, que contou com a soma da tradição do carnaval junto a Nação Grafitheira, totalizando num evento de proporções nacionais.
 2008: A comprovação da estabilidade da banda no mercado vem com a grande festa de 20 anos do Grafith, que já era conhecida em diversas partes do território nacional.
 2011: Uma das apresentações que Marcou a história do Grafith foi a sua primeira aparição no maior Carnaval Fora de época do Brasil, o Carnatal. Foi a Maior Pipoca da História do evento, superando todos os artistas que já haviam passado pelo evento, foi o momento do Orgulho Potiguar.
A primeira apresentação em São Paulo, aconteceu num evento na empresa Elo Iluminações.
 2013: O 25° aniversário do Grafith tem mais uma festa com grande público e para coroar o ano a banda venceu o prêmio Hangar de Música como Destaque Popular sendo esse um prêmio obtido pelo júri popular.
No Carnatal de 2013 foi lançada a música: Sou Grafitheiro Por Amor.
 2014: Em 2014, o lutador do UFC Renan Barão, participou do UFC 169 em Nova Jersey, e para sua entrada ao ringue o lutador potiguar colocou a música de Sou Grafitheiro Por Amor, que embalou a vitória de Barão, e emocionou a Nação Grafitheira. Após essa homenagem de Barão para a banda, que ele ouvia desde pequeno, o Grafith compôs uma música: Passinho do Barão, que já se tornou mais um sucesso tocado em todas as apresentações.

Ligações externas

Bandas de reggae do Brasil
Bandas de forró eletrônico
Bandas de Natal (Rio Grande do Norte)
Bandas formadas em 1988


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VicNet
Chapter Highlights
Endowment/Planned Giving
Grants, Memorials, Donations
Assault Survivor Kits®
Assistance League Scholarships
Bus With Us
Operation Wish List
Toy Cart
Thrift House
How You Can Donate
Custom Flower Arrangements
Philanthropic Programs
…are provided to the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners at Dell Children's Medical Center. These kits are made up of clothing, toiletries, and a book on surviving sexual assault to help restore the dignity of child and adolescent survivors. ASK additionally now provides physical and emotional services to them.
…are provided to qualifying students attending Austin Community College to help them achieve their dreams. These scholarships cover tuition, books, and fees.
…provides seniors from area assisted living and nursing facilities, along with Austin recreational facilities, a scenic, restful and relaxing day out.
…serves foster youth in the Greater Austin area who are exiting the foster care system and moving into independent living.
…is the flagship program of Assistance League chapters across the United States. Austin's Operation School Bell provides school-age children in need with a wardrobe of new school clothing, shoes and toiletries. The goal is to boost students' self-esteem so they will excel in school.
…provides an opportunity each year for the faculty and staff of a carefully selected Austin ISD elementary school to submit a Wish List of items for us to fulfill that will enhance the educational experience for their students.
…is designed to address one-time or short-term needs in the community. Often times this means teaming with a business.
…at Dell Children's Medical Center brings joy to young patients by giving them a toy and a book 4 times a week for as long as they are in the hospital. This program also covers the emergency room and children needing a CAT scan.
…allows Assistance League to re-purpose goods that cannot be sold in THRIFT HOUSE or used by our programs.
2017-18 Statistics
clients served in the Austin community
patients served through Toy Cart at Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas
children and teens comforted with items from our Assault Survivor Kits
students given new school clothing through Operation School Bell
students received more than $145,000 in Scholarships through our program with Austin Community College
Community Needs: Thousands more served through Operation Wish List, Fresh Start, Bus With Us, Outreach and Waste Not
ACTION Week Book Drive
As part of National Assistance League's ACTION Week, ALA members collected, sorted, and donated more than 1,300 books to Norman-Sims Elementary school in East Austin. The students were delighted to select two books apiece of their very own to take home!
ALA volunteers, as part of our Operation Wish List program, made some dreams come true for faculty, staff and students at Cowan Elementary School when they purchased and delivered $40,000 in items for the school. On January 30, dozens and dozens of boxes were delivered to classrooms, to the playground, and to the PE, music, […]
Appliance Purchase by Outreach
Assistance League of Austin Outreach was happy to purchase a washer and dryer for the Family Resource Center at Dobie Middle School. The appliances are available for use by students and their families who may not otherwise have access to laundry facilities.
Buford the Book Bus
Assistance League of Austin is proud to be one of the partners that provided books for Austin ISD's Buford the Book Bus. What a fabulous program that puts books in the hands of students during the summer and supplies books to school libraries! To see the video, click here.
YMSL Super Saturdays!
Young men and their moms from a local Young Men's Service League at Anderson High School join us every Saturday to answer our donor door, sort donations, organize shopping bags and help move furniture. We are so grateful for their help; it is a wonderful partnership and a win-win for us all.
We are pleased and proud to have provided $145,000 recently to Austin Community College to provide scholarships to 62 students. As part of our program, we also act as individual advocates and mentors to help these students stay on track with their education.
Interested in connecting with your community?
Check out the number of ways you can get involved.
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Assistance League of Austin is a nonprofit organization of volunteers dedicated to addressing specific needs through practical
and innovative programs. Assistance League
of Austin has been serving the Austin community since 1973 as an all-volunteer, member-based, "hands-on" organization.
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© 2017-18 Assistance League of Austin


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Protesting farmers urged Wallonia's legislators to vote against Canada's trade deal with Europe. Agriculture featured prominently in Thursday's declaration to save the deal. But did Belgium really have a legitimate beef?
Protesting farmers urged Wallonia's legislators to vote against Canada's trade deal with Europe.
Tractors were parked outside the regional legislature in Namur, Belgium, the day the no votes were cast.
Then came Thursday's declaration to save the deal. Again, a nod to the grumpy farmers.
"Safeguards" would be provided, it said, if an as yet undefined "market imbalance" emerged as a result of Canadian imports.
But do Belgium's livestock farmers really have a legitimate beef?
What's in the declarations that sealed the Canada-EU trade deal?
"There's absolutely no way I think that we could ever affect either the price or the quantity over there," said Ron Davidson, the director for international trade, government and media relations at the Canadian Meat Council.
Canadian meat products have been all but shut out of the European marketplace for several decades now, thanks to the common market's strategy of looking after its own.
It's true that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, called CETA for short, secured market access gains for Canadian beef and pork. This win for Canada's export-oriented agriculture sector was heralded as one of the deal's triumphs by the previous Conservative government.
Over six years, Canada's annual quota for beef shipped to Europe will rise gradually from 15,000 tonnes to 65,000 tonnes annually. For pork, the quota rises from 6,000 to 75,000 tonnes, again with a six-year phase-in period.
But annual consumption of beef across the European Union is over seven million tonnes. Canada's new share, eventually, is less than one per cent of that. For pork it's even smaller: less than 0.4 per cent of total European consumption.
"It just doesn't make any sense to me how it could possibly be an issue for the European market," Davidson said.
Additionally — and here's the kicker, as Davidson sees it — European livestock producers who want to export to Canada have tariff-free, quota-free market access from Day 1.
"It's not balanced," he said. "I find it quite amazing that they're complaining about it."
Protesting farmers in Wallonia said their average farm size was about 50 hectares, while in Canada it's over 300 hectares.
Outside of the supply-managed dairy, egg and poultry sectors, Canadian agriculture is more focused on expanding abroad.
But Walloons have nothing to fear, he said.
"If they're producing a lot of domestic product there, there's not going to be a domestic demand for it," he said, suggesting Canadian beef or pork would end up in parts of Europe without a strong domestic industry, or as premium products in high-end restaurants.
"They're not even going to know it's coming in, it's so small," he said.
The sign of an effective protest can be the degree to which it gets results.
On Thursday, a section in the final declaration written by Belgium's government leaders provided for unspecified "safeguards" that would be applied to ensure Belgium's agriculture sector does not suffer from some kind of as yet undefined "market imbalance" as a result of Canadian imports.
But Canada did not agree to renegotiate CETA's market access quotas. So what are they talking about here?
Canadian agriculture officials have speculated this may be code for compensation — something in the works here in Canada too for the dairy industry, as it concedes two per cent of Canada's domestic cheese market to new European imports.
An announcement on the details of that for farmers and dairy processors is expected to quickly follow the CETA signing, perhaps as early as next week.
The declaration also specified that existing regulations will continue to apply for things like genetically modified organisms (GMO foods), including the EU's precautionary principle, which says that if something can't be proven safe, it won't be allowed.
Certain crops common in North America may not be allowed in the European Union.
The Belgium declaration also touched on "geographic indicators" — like the name Feta, which is meant to apply only to cheese from Greece.
Faced with concerns from several countries, Greece included, the European Commission had already issued a seven-part declaration on this issue, clarifying how regional trademarks were protected and enforced.
Then there's the food safety debate.
Was Canada applying pressure to lift beef hormone restrictions?
"We didn't even ask for it," Davidson said. "So the fact that they were talking about that shows to me, my gosh, they don't know the terms of their agreement, how good a deal they have."
"Every time you read something you're going to hear them saying they have safer product than we do. The reverse is true," he said.
Davidson cites an example of veterinary drugs approved for veal calves. At least 83 approved in Europe, he said, are prohibited by Health Canada because of fears about antibiotic-resistant microbes.
"Contrary to what you're hearing they don't have safer meat," he said.
Canada does some things differently. What he calls a "long, slow, drawn-out process" to work out equivalent regulations continues for things like the Canadian use of carcass washes to reduce E. coli contamination.
Even if current Canadian herd sizes could provide the new volumes — which they can't, yet — these talks haven't finished in time for the provisional application of CETA.
"For us, the negotiations aren't over," he said. Without a resolution, "we are not going to be able to take advantage of the beef [deal] six months from now. It's just not in the cards."


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The Federal Court of Australia has handed down its decision that ride-sourcing is taxi travel.
For GST purposes, the word taxi means a car (vehicle) made available for public hire that is used to transport passengers for fares.
State and territory laws regulating transportation of passengers contain specific definitions of the term taxi. It is possible for a vehicle to be a taxi for GST purposes, but not for state and territory regulatory purposes.
This information clarifies how the tax laws we administer apply to ride-sourcing.
We express no view about whether ride-sourcing vehicles are taxis within the state and territory specific definitions, or on the legality of ride-sourcing arrangements.


The BLS or the Basic Life Support is a type of cardio resuscitation that is CPR, which is the primary lifesaving method that all of the medical experts should know. After having a cardiac arrest or any other kind of accidents, the first thing that must be taken care of is the breathing of the patient and if he/she is still responding to the external stimulus. It means that there is still help for the person to be able to survive and recover soon after the trauma occurred. All of the paramedics, nurses, practitioners in the nursing field, firefighters, pharmacists and the line must be well trained in providing the BLS along with CPR. While the BLS as well as the CPR may show off to be the control of the medical professionals, the fact still remains that even those who are not into the medical field must take the BLS Healthcare Provider courses.
For instance, the BLS Healthcare Provider along with the CPR courses may be of great help to those who are in the non-medical field like teachers, nurses and others in case anyone in the community needs help. The BLS is more advanced that the CPR course. This is primarily because of the fact that the CPR is just a part of the BLS, while the BLS is more of the CPR. It may be confusing at first, but when you enroll in the class, you will understand their different and their correlation as well. With this in mind, you must take up those who have had some previous experience in the field of medical care. But, there are no restrictions of the layman when it comes to these courses.
You will surely appreciate the BLS Healthcare Provider course when you take it online. Being made available online, a lot of people who are bounded by time may enroll in this service and learn the basics of BLS without disturbing their typical daily routine. It will be a hard adjustment if you have work or you have kids to take care of and yet you must go to school to attend the class physically. More mothers are now taking the BLS Healthcare Provider program, which they can also use to save the lives of their kids first and foremost. Under certain instances, the online lessons can really be of help. Some people are misguided in learning the course that are being offered through the internet, they do believe that the certification can just be taken through a classroom mode of studying. This is not true at all. Though you cannot deny the fact that classroom teaching is still an advantage a lot of times, it must also be understood that online courses offer no less.


Under this tab, you'll find the cast lists for the Katya and Starbride novels, as well as some interesting tidbits that I've gathered together.
A servant's footsteps are made of shadows.
You have the right road, but the wrong end.
Pride is a comfortable shackle.
An un-trusted servant is a jar with no bottom.
Different perspectives help make a clear portrait.
You can't beat a man back to work.
As long as we have each other, what sorrow can truly capture us?
Every 'if' is a hole in the road.
He who tries for perfection will sooner catch the sun.
Words are water, only as firm as the container that holds them.
Rarely is someone a leader because he's best at anything but being a leader.
We could not seek the truth if we did not question all that surrounds us.
No news could mean good news.
Surround yourself with friends who surprise you, and the enemy will never catch you off guard.
Spend too much time in comfortable furs and lose your way out of them.
Time is the balm that heals all wounds.
The past is a horse dead and buried. Why dig up what you can no longer ride?
Knowledge is a guide, not a destination.
Time is the enemy of pain.
There are deeds one can never come back from.


Preview: Australia will look to maintain their winning momentum when they meet England in the Twenty20 tri-series clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
In their last T20I against England, Glenn Maxwell slammed a last-ball six to score a masterful century and lead Australia to a five-wicket victory.
Australia: David Warner (captain), Aaron Finch, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (wicket-keeper), Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wicket-keeper), Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood.


text:
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Flightless Birds
By Author on July 11, 2020 • ( Leave a comment )
By Patrick Eades
We were in the garage by Christmas. The temperature refused to drop from 35 degrees at nine in the evening, our stomachs stuffed with prawns, ham, fruit cake and beer. John was half cut and I felt on edge from the heat and stench emanating from my husband. We lay there on our bed, surrounded by old push bikes with flat tyres, a set of golf clubs from the 1970s and tools upon tools hanging from the walls. It's pretty hard to fall asleep when there's a two-foot bow saw in your eyeline. Peaceful dreams I think not.
'What a year,' John said.
What a year. Part of me wanted to pull the bow saw off its hook and saw John's face off. Or at least his tongue. The other part of me wanted John to roll over and hold me, tell me everything would be alright. That the next year would be better, that we were still young and free, the best years yet to come.
I knew I had to tell him, but I didn't know how.
I had slim-to-none chance of sleeping, so my thoughts returned to the past, drawn back like a magnet. The present was hell and the future beyond my grasp.
Eleven months earlier, in January, we both returned from our Christmas break, full of energy and ready to work. Well, John did at least. I could have happily stayed off for another month, but John became restless not working. The boss called a meeting at 9:30, and came straight out with it. Restructuring.
The rest of the day passed like a funeral march. The post-holiday balloon of chatter and gossip had burst, the air flat and quiet. Whispers broke out, and then died at the sound of footsteps. John told me at dinner (a Japanese Mexican fusion place on the harbour, about 70 bucks for a main) he wasn't worried, he was the sole financial manager for the company, his job should be safe. They would have called me a secretary thirty years ago but these days I was a 'PA'. I couldn't give a shit what they called me as long as I could keep my six-figure salary.
In the end they wouldn't even allow me to keep my pencil case. Company property. John couldn't speak when he found out they replaced him with a 23-year-old accountant, who would do his job for half the wage. No redundancy or 'severance package.' Two weeks' notice and a half-arsed goodbye card mostly empty because our colleagues couldn't think of what to say. We'd been at the company ten years.
My parents didn't sound surprised. The economy sat perched on the edge of a cliff, about to plunge into recession, fueled by the greed and stupidity of professions like ours. I felt a strange sense of relief when I walked out for the last time, but I had to hide it from John, who smashed his box of possessions against the front door when it wouldn't open. They spilled over the entrance way, and the security guard watched us scratch around on the concrete floor like pigeons searching for breadcrumbs.
We went back to our apartment in Balmain we rented for $1400 a week. A ridiculous figure, but we had harbour views and marble floors, and a place to park our Mercedes. Since we'd stopped IVF, we'd been a little more frivolous with our spending. An attempt to buy the happiness our bodies couldn't grant us. A gold-plated band aid for an aching heart.
I did the math, we had a little over three thousand dollars in our accounts, and we owed five and a half thousand on our platinum card. It didn't take a financial manager to work out we were screwed. John slid the floor, silent, but two bottles of cab sav later he told me not to worry, he'd have a new job by next week at the latest.
Next week turned into the week after, and both of us still very much unemployed. Newspapers talked of the next great recession. Businesses tightened up, tossing deadwood overboard and hauling in their gangways. John and I would scour the internet and papers for jobs all morning, and then go and sit in the park in the afternoon, stare at the harbour bridge while we plastered ourselves with red wine and gin.
Locals gave us looks that told us we no longer belonged. I never felt like I belonged. The suburb was crammed full of white yuppies working white collar jobs and pretending they weren't as white as they thought. They flocked towards wealthy black people like seagulls, would boast about the number of multicultural friends they had, and then walk past a homeless Aboriginal woman like she didn't exist. The former blue-collar neighborhood had been starched and pressed clean, gentrified beyond recognition. John loved it there. Said he was considering voting greens—upper house only of course—in the next election. I'm pretty sure he still thought Bob Brown was their leader.
I called my Dad. Told him straight. We were unemployed, four thousand dollars in debt and staring down eviction. And we'd run out of booze. Dad said my old room was still vacant, long as we didn't mind being woken at six in the morning by mother performing laughing yoga—a new hobby of hers.
John said no initially. In the end it was my parents' home or the street.
So we went. John whinged and moaned; no more turmeric lattes, no more wine bars, no more uber eats. He said we'd be drinking VB in the pokies lounge in the RSL on Wednesday nights by March. Told me to go and buy Ugg boots so at least we'd meet the dress code.
A scorching Saturday morning in February we left/escaped/dragged ourselves away from the inner west, on our way to the outer suburbs of Sydney with a van full of stainless-steel furniture and a hangover the size of New South Wales. The Sutherland shire wasn't a bad place to live, it has easy access to national parks and beaches, backyards and public schools you wouldn't be afraid to send your child to. But there's one thing missing—according to John at least—culture. I'd grown tired of defending 'The Shire', the place I'd grown up but never been able to quite escape. I cringed when I heard friends claim they were from 'God's country', and the race riots in Cronulla made me feel sick. John grew up on the north shore, but his parents had retired to the country, and the thought of moving out of Sydney didn't even cross our minds.
I'd forgotten how cramped my old room felt until we unpacked our stuff. Mum had left the pink bedspread on and my fluffy animal collection in the corner ever since I moved out; 'Your kids will love it when they stay over!' We had to edge around each other to reach boxes, and I laid down on the bed for a minute's breathing room. John spooned me and whispered in my ear, 'Well, this is cosy.'
His breath was sour with last night's wine and the sweat from lifting our boxes upstairs. I'd been home for two hours and already felt suffocated.
It only took a week before the subject of our employment status arose. My mother floated the question while I had a mouth full of spag bol, and I waited to see if John would answer. He responded by cramming a whole slice of garlic bread in his mouth. I kicked his shin under the table before I managed to splutter, 'We're still looking.'
I hadn't been unemployed since my first job, taking orders in the local pizza shop in high school. I asked to be a delivery driver, but my mum said it was too dangerous and called the owner. The owner told me he had plenty of ugly delivery boys, he needed someone pretty like me on the front desk. And I did what I was told. Practiced my smile, my happy-happy phone voice, and learnt how to apologise to mothers pissed off at receiving a supreme instead of pepperoni. No-one liked supreme.
When I finished school, I transferred my skills to become a secretary and occasional dental assistant at Dr. Ali's dental practice in the city. I told my parents Dr. Ali said I should go to university and study dentistry, and my mum warned me they have the highest suicide rate of any profession.
When I met John, he told me he could put in a good word with his boss for a PA job going at his office, and that was it. I'd been there ever since. I had worked for twenty years, but I'd never had a "career." I always thought it would be temporary, until I had children. I had wrinkles in the corners of my eyes from smiling all day. My colleagues loved my happy nature, but that fake-it-till-you-make-it shit is rubbish. Every time I smiled to another arrogant arsehole in a suit, or to a boss whose eyes never quite made it up to mine, I pushed my body beyond its capacity for fakeness. Only by stepping back I could appreciate the toll.
So while John kept his focus narrowed on financial manager, accountancy and banking jobs, I turned elsewhere. I called about a part time job in a nursery located in the coastal stretch between Sydney and Wollongong. The grand sum of my gardening experience involved looking after a potted bonsai lime tree on our balcony (I had assumed it was a bonsai version, but in retrospect it was probably a regular version stunted through neglect).
When they asked me at the interview why I applied for the job, I had to think for a minute. I could have bullshitted them, waffled on about my green thumb and love of nature, but I told them the truth. I was sick of working for arseholes. I was sick of talking to arseholes on the phone. I was sick of creepy older men staring at my arsehole. The nursery lady, a grey-haired woman with strong arms and a face full of wrinkles, laughed and asked me to name my favourite deciduous. I said the ones who decided to stay green. She laughed again, and I laughed with her. I told her I wanted to get my hands dirty. I'd take dirty hands over dirty minds any day. An hour later she called me to ask when I could start.
John raised his eyebrows when I shared my news at dinner.
'How quaint,' my mother replied.
'Someone's gotta bring home the bacon,' said my dad, raising his beer towards me.
John's face turned the colour of the napolitana sauce on his schnitzel.
Later, John whispered to me in our room, the air escaping from his mouth in raspy explosions.
'They think I'm a bludger do they? Leeching off my wife and her family and forcing you into a manual labour job?'
He said the words manual labour like he would Nazi, or paedophile.
'No, they don't. You know what they're like.'
'Did you tell them who was the one making 180k the last five years?'
I thought about saying who was the one who spent that 180k every year, on degustation dinners at Michelin star restaurants, on Giorgio Armani suits, on yearly membership at Royal Sydney golf course (despite the fact his swing was so ugly you could turn blind staring at it). But I felt that might escalate his angry whispers to a level capable of passing through the fibro walls that separated us from my parents.
I said, 'Don't worry, something will come up for you soon.'
It turned out I loved the nursery job. They had me start behind the cash register, but the older lady who interviewed me, Barb, mentored me in the art of horticulture. Pretty soon I knew how to aerate, fertilize, graft, pollinate and propagate. Our bathroom mirror became my audition camera for upcoming gardening Australia segments. I'd always had a secret crush on Costa, the bearded eccentric who hosted the show. He looked nothing like John.
My job, while bringing in much needed income and purpose to my life, had the opposite effect on John. He hated sitting at home while I left for work. My parents had semi-retired, and John started going on long, aimless walks around the neighbourhood to avoid sitting on the back deck and watching them mulch garden beds all afternoon.
One day I came home from work and couldn't find John. I called him, and heard his phone ringing on our bedside table. He didn't return until ten in the evening, I told my parents he met up with friends. He stank of body odour. He told me he got lost on his walk and didn't realise the time until night fell. His eyes stared back at me like two lightbulbs underwater, their light barely reaching the surface.
I worried about him. He hadn't had a job interview in months and wasn't in shape for one now anyway. A patchy beard had crept over his cheeks, streaks of grey woven through. His clothes hung off him like a skeleton, his already thin build now emaciated by days spent wandering and meals neglected. He'd told me once before he couldn't stomach the taste of bread if he didn't win it.
My room had become a tomb, a place where conversation and frivolity went to die. A 3.5 by 3.5m coffin. We had never been in closer quarters before, and I had never felt further apart. My room had become John's sanctuary, he had stolen it from me. Nostalgic memories of lying on my bed reading Agatha Christie novels, of gossiping with my school friends till the early hours of the morning, of fantasising romantic embraces with my year 9 crush (Jacob Hollister) and the babies we would have had been crushed under the weight of John's gloom. I stayed up watching the late news with my dad, and prayed John would be asleep as I crept up the stairs to bed. He wasn't. He would wait for me. Ask me what I had been talking to my parents about without him. Was it about him? No, I would tell him, and it wasn't. They worried, I could tell, but they trusted me to fix it. I felt like a mechanic standing in front of a burnt-out car.
In September we received news that my brother's house, in the posh suburb of Lilli Pilli, was going to be renovated, and they needed a place to stay for the next eight months. My brother, a dickhead and a well sought-after engineer, his wife (also a dickhead), and their two boys (well on their way to becoming dickheads) would be coming to join the party. John first suggested the garage. Theoretically, my parents four-bedroom house could accommodate us all, but it would be chaos. It already felt congested, and I could sense John's panic at the impending invasion.
The garage was big, four-car at least, but overflowing with furniture and boxes we hadn't unpacked yet, gardening supplies and leftover junk from my childhood. My pink BMX with training wheels lay in one corner, covered with spiderwebs and the front tire as flat as a tack. My mum had been keeping it to hand down to my as yet unborn daughter (You're 35 hun, might want to think about getting a wriggle on, she loved to say).
Our new quarters were 95% watertight (a stream of water as wide as my forearm would snake its way through our "living room" with a solid day's rain), relatively airtight (John's farts still lingered unless the southerly blew greater than twenty knots), and as hot as Hades (my dad's description) once the mercury passed 25 degrees Celsius.
John didn't mind. He complained—plenty—but he didn't mind. He had his sanctuary back. For a little while.
My brother Craig told me he felt bad for shafting us to 'Vinnie's warehouse', so most afternoons he would wander down with a six pack of Coronas and keep us company before family dinner. Craig was an engineer, and he did well at school, went to university. Our family called him the allen key from a shed full of sledgehammers. I still thought he's a moron. He had the social intelligence of a telegraph pole. John hated those visits. I don't think he hated Craig per se (I wouldn't have blamed him), but he hated the disturbance to his sanctuary. Craig would natter on about the footy, politics, the price of maintaining a boat, all the things John detested or could no longer afford.
John's walks stretched out into the evenings, and often he wouldn't be back for dinner. Sometimes I wondered if he would ever come back. The man I loved had been hollowed out, a shell of self-pity set to roam the earth for eternity searching for a life once lived.
My mum asked Craig if he could find a job for John, like she used to ask my friends to find a boyfriend for me, because I was obviously incapable of managing such a task myself. Craig—to his credit—asked around, and told John his site needed more casual labourers for the excavation of a motorway extension out west. I failed to suppress my frustration when John declined (not the best utilisation of his skill set), and we fought that night. Whispers turned into raised voices turned into me screaming at John to just have a bloody go. It ended with John setting off for an evening walk and me hurling my future child's BMX against the dartboard on the wall.
And that's how we arrived here at Christmas night, surrounded by a fog of stale beer and prawns, a film of sweat we couldn't shed and another argument lurking around the corner. What a year. There never would be a perfect time, so I told him.
'John, I'm pregnant.'
He didn't speak for a minute, and I wondered if he'd fallen asleep. He rolled over, and in the faint moonlight I could see a smile stretching across his face.
'Are you sure?'
'I'm sure.'
He hugged me then, squeezed me harder than he had in a long time.
'John,' I managed to choke out, and he loosened his grip. 'We can't keep it.'
'Why not?'
I tried to summon the words to explain the myriad of reasons why having a baby was a dumb idea. Maybe the fact John was unemployed and I earned the princely sum of $500 a week. Maybe the fact that our marriage teetered on the brink of collapse, that we were drifting apart so fast John was almost out of view. Or maybe it was the fact we lived in my parents' garage, with no bathroom, no kitchen and no goddamn air conditioning.
But John knew all that. He knew it all, and he kept smiling. For six years we had been trying to fall pregnant, full of youth, wealth and hope. Our youth was now in the rear-view mirror, our wealth had slipped through our fingers, and hope… I looked around our room, my eyes drawn to the crumpled pink bike frame lying beneath the dartboard.
I raised my arms in a gesture at everything and nothing.
John kissed my forehead and stumbled off the bed, headed towards the garage door.
'Where are you going?' I asked.
'To tell your brother, I'm ready to dig those holes.'
The Ballad of Heart Beat
'Hatchlings' and other poems by Mary Bone


Well, that was very.......interesting....I guess.
May I ask what happened that could result in such deletion?
I believe it was you brother's video.
I would have guessed otherwise. If you still have some of the members e-mails logged you could inform them of what happened.
I had their emails, but I lost them when we restored our computer. I did remeber Rayna's email, though, so she got her Russian buddies back on, as well as Helmut and Conrad.


Key events in neurotechnology from 2006 to 2018.
Mapped about 10,000 neurons in 2-week-old rat somatosensory neocortical columns with enough resolution to show the rough spatial locations of the dendrites and synapses.
After constructing a virtual model, algorithmic adjustments refined the spatial connections between neurons to increase accuracy (10,000 neurons and over 10 million synapses).
Emulated the cortical column using the Blue Gene/L supercomputer.
The emulation demonstrated high accuracy with respect to experimental data.
Theodore Berger and his team developed an artificial replacement for neurons that transmit information from the CA3 region to the CA1 region of the hippocampus.
This cognitive prosthesis employs a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) model to encode the information in CA3 and send it to CA1.
The prosthesis was shown to restore and enhance memory in rats (as evaluated by behavioral testing and brain imaging).
Stefan Hell (2014 Nobel laureate in chemistry) developed stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED), a type of superresolution fluorescence microscopy which allowed imaging of synapses and dendritic spines.
STED microscopy uses transgenic neurons which express fluorescent proteins and fluoresce sequentially. Although the wavelength of the light used for imaging would ordinarily limit the resolution (the diffraction limit), STED's temporal contrast overcomes this limitation.
Transgenic mice with glass-sealed holes in their skulls over their somatosensory cortices were imaged using STED (they were anesthetized during this process). Synapses and dendritic spines were observed up to fifteen nanometers below the surface of the somatosensory cortex.
The Eyewire project was initiated by Seung's group. It is a crowdsourcing initiative for mapping the connectome in the retina and uncovering its neural circuits.
Laboratories first collect structural data from tissue in the retina using serial electron microscopy as well as functional data using two-photon microscopy.
In the Eyewire game, slices of imaging data are provided to players. The players then help reconstruct neural morphologies and circuits by "coloring in" the parts of the images that correspond to cells and then stacking many images on top of each other to generate 3D images. Artificial intelligence helps to provide initial "best guesses" and guide the players, but the players ultimately perform the task of reconstruction.
By November 2013, around 82,000 participants had played the game and its popularity continues to grow. Over time, Eyewire has shown great successes in reconstructing neurons and circuits.
The BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Technologies) provided neuroscience with $110 million in governmental funding and $122 million in funding from private sources such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Allen Institute for Brain Science.
Deisseroth and his colleagues developed a method called CLARITY to make samples of neural tissue optically translucent without damaging the fine cellular structures in the tissue. This method was even able to make entire mouse brains transparent.
Lipids in the hydrogel-stabilized mouse brains were extracted using hydrophobic organic solvents and electrophoresis.
Berger's hippocampal prosthesis was implanted in pairs of rats.
When "donor" rats were trained to perform a task, the donor rats developed neural representations (memories) that were encoded in their hippocampal prostheses.
The donor rat memories were processed by the MIMO model and transmitted to the hippocampal prostheses of untrained "recipient" rats. After receiving the memories, the recipient rats performed significantly better on the task that they had not been trained to perform.
From these phenomenological axioms and the assumption of causality, IIT identifies maximally irreducible conceptual structures (MICS) associated with each experience. MICS represent particular patterns of qualia which form unified percepts.
IIT also outlines a mathematical measure of an experience's quantity. This measure is called integrated information or φ.
The Brain/MINDS (Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies) project was initiated in Japan to further understanding of the brain. This project received almost $30 million in funding for its first year alone.
Brain/MINDS focuses on studying the brain of the common marmoset (a non-human primate that is abundant in Japan), developing new technologies for brain mapping, and understanding the human brain with the goal of finding new treatments for brain diseases.
The anatomical elegans connectome was originally mapped in 1976 by Albertson and Thomson.
More data has since been collected on neurotransmitters, electrophysiology, cell morphology, and other characteristics of the elegans connectome.
They also released software called Geppetto. This program allows users to manipulate both multicompartmental Hodgkin-Huxley models and highly efficient soft-body physics simulations (for modeling the worm's electrophysiology and anatomy).
The TrueNorth neuromorphic computing chip was constructed and validated by DARPA and IBM.
TrueNorth's neuromorphic architecture enables emulation of up to 1 million neurons with over 250 million synapses.
The chip requires far less power than traditional computing devices.
TrueNorth can be programmed to emulate any arrangement of biological neurons.
The HBP achieved digital reconstruction of a 0.29 mm3 section of rat cortical tissue (31,000 neurons and 37 million synapses) based on a partial map, morphological data, "connectivity rules," and additional known datasets.
This mesocircuit was emulated using the Blue Gene/Q supercomputer and a few accessory hardware components.
The emulation demonstrated enough accuracy to reproduce emergent neurological processes and yield new insights on how these processes function.
Charles Lieber's and his group developed a syringe-injectable electronic mesh with sub-micrometer-thick wiring that can be used for neural interfacing.
They constructed the meshes from flexible, biocompatible electronics. When injected, the neural lace expands to cover and record from centimeter-scale regions of tissue.
Neural lace may allow for "invasive" brain-computer interfaces to be less invasive by removing the need for surgical implantation.
Lieber has continued to develop this technology towards clinical application.
Maharbiz developed implantable, ~1 mm biosensors for wireless neural recording and tested them in rats (this "neural dust" could be miniaturized to less than 0.5 mm using customized electronic components).
Neural dust motes consisted of two recording electrodes, a transistor, and a piezoelectric crystal.
The neural dust received external power from ultrasound. Neural signals were recorded by measuring disruptions to the reflection of the ultrasound waves by the piezoelectric crystal. Signal processing techniques enabled precise measurement of activity.
Berger continued developing his cognitive prosthesis. Testing in Rhesus Macaques was performed.
As with the rats, monkeys with the implant showed substantially improved performance on memory tasks. Other tests supported these results.
The China Brain Project was launched to improve understanding of cognition's neural mechanisms, develop brain research technology platforms, develop preventative and diagnostic interventions for brain disorders, and improve brain-inspired artificial intelligence technologies.
This project will be carried out from 2016 to 2030 with the goal of completing mesoscopic brain circuit maps.
Gaunt, Flesher, and colleagues found that microstimulation of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) could partially restore tactile sensations to a patient with a spinal cord injury.
Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank (a Japanese telecommunications corporation), announced a plan to raise $100 billion in venture capital to invest in artificial intelligence. This plan involved partnering with multiple other companies in order to raise this enormous amount of capital.
Kernel will develop implants which allow for recording and stimulation of large numbers of neurons at once. The initial goal of the company is to develop treatments for mental illnesses and neurodegenerative diseases, while its long-term goal is to enhance human intelligence.
Kernel was originally working with Theodore Berger and planning to use his hippocampal prosthesis. Unfortunately, Berger and Kernel parted ways after about six months because Berger's vision was reportedly too long-range to support a financially viable company (at least for now).
Kernel was originally a company called Kendall Research Systems. This company was started by a former member of the Boyden lab. Edward Boyden is a professor at MIT who specializes in neuroengineering and synthetic biology. In total, four members of Kernel's team are former Boyden lab members.
NeuraLink will begin by developing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for clinical applications, but the ultimate goal of the company is to enhance human intelligence in order to keep up with artificial intelligence.
Facebook revealed research on constructing non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) at a company-run conference. This initiative is run by Regina Dugan, Facebook's head of R&D at division building 8.
Researchers at Facebook are working on a non-invasive BCI which may eventually enable users to type one hundred words per minute with their thoughts alone. This builds on past research which has been used to help paralyzed patients.
Dong Song (who was working alongside Berger) tested the MIMO algorithm on human epilepsy patients by using implanted recording and stimulation electrodes. The full prosthesis was not implanted, but these electrodes acted similarly, though in a temporary capacity.
Although only two patients were tested in this study, many trials were performed to at least partly compensate for the small sample size. More thorough testing will occur soon.
Hippocampal spike trains from individual cells in CA1 and CA3 were recorded from the patients during a delayed match-to-sample task. The patients were shown various images while these data were recorded and then processed by the MIMO model. Then the patients were asked to recall which image they had been shown previously by picking it from a group of "distractor" images. Memories encoded by the MIMO model were used to stimulate hippocampal cells during the recall phase.
Compared to controls in which the same two epilepsy patients were not assisted by the algorithm and stimulation, the experimental trials demonstrated a significant increase in successful pattern matching.
Each of the numerous machines in Luo's facility performs automated processing and imaging of tissue samples. The devices make ultrathin slices of brain tissue using diamond blades. The machines also treat the samples with fluorescent stains or other contrast-enhancing chemicals. After sample preparation, the tissue slices are imaged by fluorescence microscopy.
The institute has already demonstrated its potential by mapping the structure of an extremely long neuron which "wraps around" the entire mouse brain.
Boyden and his colleagues developed a robotic system to automate patch-clamp recordings from individual neurons. Its data collection yield is similar to that of skilled human experimenters.
By continuously imaging neural tissue using two-photon microscopy, the robot can adapt to a target cell's movement and shift the pipette to compensate. This adaptation is facilitated by a new type of algorithm called imagepatching. As the pipette approaches its target, the imagepatching algorithm adjusts the pipette's trajectory based on the real-time two-photon microscopy.
This system was tested in vivo using mice. It can be used in vivo so long as the target cells express a fluorescent marker or otherwise fluoresce corresponding to their size and position.
Precise genome editing in the brain has historically been challenging because most neurons are postmitotic (non-dividing) and this state prevents homology-directed repair (HDR) from occurring. HDR is a mechanism of DNA repair which allows for targeted insertions of DNA fragments with overhangs that are homologous to the region of interest (by contrast, non-homologous end-joining is highly unpredictable).
Nishiyama, Mikuni, and Yasuda developed a technique which allows genome editing in postmitotic mammalian neurons. They used adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) and CRISPR-Cas9 to accomplish this.
The AAVs delivered ssDNA sequences encoding a single guide RNA (sgRNA) and an insert. Inserts encoding a hemagglutinin tag (HA) and inserts encoding EGFP were both employed. Cas9 was encoded endogenously by transgenic host cells and host animals.
This method successfully demonstrated precise genome editing in vitro and in vivo with a low rate of off-target effects. The inserts did not cause deletion of nearby endogenous sequences in 98.1% of infected neurons.
(13) Liu, J., Fu, T., Sheng, Z.,… Lieber, C. M. (2015) Syringe-Injectable electronics. Nature Nanotechnology. 10(7), 629–636, doi:10.1038/nnano.2015.115.
(14) Seo, D., R. M., Neely, K., Shen,… Maharbiz, M. M. (2016). Wireless Recording in the Peripheral Nervous System with Ultrasonic Neural Dust. Neuron. 91(3), 529–539, doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2016.06.034.
(18) Lomas, N. (2017) "Superintelligent AI explains Softbank's push to raise a $100BN Vision Fund." TechCrunch, 27 Feb. 2017, https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/27/superintelligent-ai-explains-softbanks-push-to-raise-a-100bn-vision-fund/. Accessed 1 Jan. 2018.
(19) Regalado, A. (2017). "Silicon Valley's race to develop a brain-computer interface." MIT Technology Review, 16 Mar. 2017. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603771/the-entrepreneur-with-the-100-million-plan-to-link-brains-to-computers/. Accessed 28 Aug. 2017.
(20) Etherington, Darrell. "Elon Musk's Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI." TechCrunch, 27 Mar. 2017, techcrunch.com/2017/03/27/elon-musks-neuralink-wants-to-boost-the-brain-to-keep-up-with-ai/. Accessed 29 Aug. 2017.
(21) Constine, J. "Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing." TechCrunch, 19 Apr. 2017, https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/19/facebook-brain-interface/. Accessed 28 Aug. 2017.
(22) Hatmaker, Taylor. "DARPA awards $65 million to develop the perfect, tiny two-way brain-computer interface." TechCrunch, 10 July 2017, techcrunch.com/2017/07/10/darpa-nesd-grants-paradromics/. Accessed 29 Aug. 2017.